Could It Be?
by FuzzyOnion
Summary: Nutty was a light green squirrel who loved sugar. He felt strange lately. His mind kept lingering on a girl. The girl was a sheep named Lammy, and she had a little purple bow on her head. She always kept a pickle with her. Whenever she was near him, Nutty felt different. Also, there was something strange about that pickle of hers.
1. Chapter 1

A certain light green squirrel happily strolled along the sidewalk of a peaceful street, licking a lollipop with red, blue, and green swirls. Lollipops were one of his favorite things to eat, along with every other type of candy. In fact, anything sugary would drive him crazy. Sugar was basically his life. He even had a few sweets stuck to him all the time; there was a small lollipop on his cheek, a small sucker on his other cheek, a candy apple on his forehead, and a candy cane on his chest. The squirrel also had a lazy eye. His name was Nutty. Nutty soon bit the lollipop. He ate the fragments of the colorful treat. All that was left was the white stick that it came with.

"MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!" said the insane little devil. He tossed the white stick onto a nearby open garbage can. Then he hopped his way to the park, while at the same time shaking like a jackhammer. That's what he was, a crazy, hyper, sugar-crazed guy. This was obvious to anyone with a brain. He had a serious addiction. Nutty giggled maniacally as he bounced through the park, which, unlike the streets, was filled with activity.

It was a sunny day, and there was barely a cloud in the beautiful sky. Cuddles, Toothy, Russell and Flaky were playing soccer in the field. Pop and Cub were throwing a frisbee to each other near the sand box. Giggles and Petunia were on the swings while singing. Lumpy sat on a bench, reading a newspaper while eating a sandwich. Mime rode his unicycle past Nutty, going in the same direction as him. Disco Bear, who was trying to get some exercise, jogged past Nutty, going in the opposite direction. And there was Sniffles the anteater, going down a slide.

Wait a minute, Sniffles? Nutty glanced over to where Sniffles was and stopped "jack hammering." He smiled. Sniffles was his best friend.

"Hey, Sniffles!" Nutty called with a wave.

Sniffles looked over at Nutty, smiled, and waved back. "Hi Nutty!" he responded.

Nutty ran over to Sniffles at the slide. "How's it going, buddy?" Nutty asked.

"Great," answered Sniffles. "I'm almost done with my latest invention, the Telepathy Helmet. What makes it amazing is that it will grant telepathic abilities to whoever puts it on. Its name is self-explanatory."

Nutty tilted his head sideways. "What does 'telepathic' mean?" he asked.

"It helps you read people's minds," said Sniffles simply.

"Oooooooooh! That's really cool." Nutty said back.

"Yeah. It's gonna come in handy when I'm looking for some yummy ants! I'll be able to find them by listening to their thoughts, and if they think about any tricks, I'll know!" Sniffles snickered while rubbing his paws together. "Wanna see it?" he offered.

"Boy, would I?" answered Nutty.

The two friends began walking toward Sniffles's house. "It's gonna be my greatest invention yet," giggled Sniffles.

"I wouldn't doubt it," said Nutty.

Nutty looked around as he walked next to Sniffles. His eyes moved from a vending machine, to a fire hydrant, to a man hole cover, to a lamp post, to the window of a store, to a poster on a pole with a picture of a missing dog and a phone number printed under it, and finally, up at the sky. A cloud caught his attention. This particular cloud seemed whiter than all of the others, and it also looked the fluffiest. It would have been nice to rest on it in the sky if possible. The cloud reminded him of a certain someone. Someone with wool. And a bow. And a friendly personality. Her name was Lammy. She was a sheep, and she was the newest citizen of this town. Lammy was Nutty's friend for couple of months now. He and she have grown close over time. Something interesting about her was the way she spoke. Well, she almost spoke normally. But whenever she came to a word with an "a" sound like in the word "bat", or the other "a" sound in the word "snake", or an "o" in the word "rock", she would bleat the vowels like the sheep she was.

Nutty smiled as he thought about Lammy, absently walking. When she had candy, chocolate, or a sweet pastry, she would share some with him. Sometimes she even got sweet foods JUST for him. But that wasn't all he liked about her. She was really nice, and pleasant to be around. He liked the way she dressed too, and the way she smiled, and honestly, he also liked that she bleated her a's and o's. He thought Lammy was wonderful. Funny, Nutty says "wonderful", but Lammy says "wo-o-o-o-o-o-o-onderful".

"NUTTY!" shouted the annoyed anteater walking next to him.

Nutty jumped and gave a brief scream. He quickly looked around. His eyes rested on Sniffles's. "Huh?" he said, coming back to Earth.

"I said your name five times already!" Sniffles said. "Anyway, like I said, the helmet is ALMOST done. It just needs a few changes here and there, that's all. Then it will be functional, and I'm gonna try it out. You can try it out too if you want. Would you like to?" offered Sniffles.

Nutty gasped. "Yeah!" he shouted with a smile.

"Cool," said Sniffles. He and Nutty were just two blocks away from Sniffles's house. Nutty resumed to his thoughts about Lammy. A smile formed on his lips once again. He wondered what she was doing right now. He also wondered what she was thinking about right at this very moment. Could she be thinking about him too? Speaking of Lammy...

Nutty quickly stopped staring into space as soon as he saw someone emerge from behind a building on the corner of the block that he and Sniffles were currently on. That someone was now walking toward them. This person carried a pickle. She halted as soon as she noticed them. Nutty's smile widened.

"Hey, Lammy!" he called happily.

Lammy returned the smile. "Hi Nutty! Hi Sniffles!" she called. She waved to them before jogging over to them.

When she approached them, Sniffles said, "Hello, Lammy. How are you doing?"

"I'm grea-a-a-a-a-at. Tha-a-a-a-a-a-a-ank you." Lammy answered.

Nutty beamed at the way she bleated. It was so unique.

"Nutty and I are on our way to my house. I'm showing him a cool invention that I'm almost done with." Sniffles told Lammy. "It's called the Telepathy Helmet. Would you like to come with us?"

"I'd lo-o-o-o-o-ove to." said Lammy.

She started walking with them. Sniffles was on Nutty's left, and Lammy was on his right. Nutty kept looking over at Lammy. Whenever he did this, she would look back, and he would look somewhere else quickly. Nutty looked at her again when she was focusing on the pickle that she carried. He stared at her while wearing a dreamy smile. Her eyes were fixed on the pickle. Then Nutty looked at the pickle too. He wondered why the pickle was so important to her. Time ago, she told him that its name was Mr. Pickels. Nutty was puzzled by this. He was curious about why Lammy had carried this fruit with her all the time, and how long she had been doing so. He remembered hearing Lammy say that "he" was her best friend, and that "he" was closer to him than anyone else was. This bothered him. Nutty found it quite odd that Lammy always had this pickle. But the oddness of it wasn't what bothered him. It was something else. Something that angered him, but he didn't know what it was.

"We're here," announced Sniffles when they all finally got to his house. Sniffles led Nutty and Lammy to the room where his helmet was. The helmet sat on a wooden table. It had bolts, buttons, lights, and an antenna on the top. Sniffles walked over to where the helmet was. He removed two screws from it with a screwdriver. Then he removed cover of a small opening in the helmet. He used a tweezer-like tool to remove a microchip. He turned his back to the other two, making the adjustments that he needed. Nutty and Lammy just stood several yards behind him. Just like earlier, Nutty shot glances at Lammy, who stood on his left now. She left her pickle sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall behind her. Whenever he looked at her, she would look back, and he would look somewhere else quickly.

"I finished! Finally," called Sniffles. He turned around and faced Nutty and Lammy. He stepped to the side and gestured at the helmet on the table. "Lady and gentleman," announced the light blue anteater. "I give you... the Telepathy Helmet!"

Lammy looked at the now completed helmet. She gasped. "Wow. That looks neat. It must ha-a-a-a-a-ave took you a lo-o-o-o-o-o-ong time to build it," she told him.

Sniffles grinned. "Actually, it only took me three days." he informed.

Lammy widened her eyes. "Wha-a-a-a-a-at? Are you sure? Tha-a-a-a-a-at doesn't look like it took only three da-a-a-a-a-a-ays," Lammy said surprised.

"Looks can be decieving," replied Sniffles. "So... who wants to be the first to try it out?" He glanced at Lammy, and then to Nutty. "Hmm?" said Sniffles.


	2. Chapter 2

Lammy began to raise her paw, but when her arm was half-way raised, Nutty shot his arm all the way up quickly.

"Ooh! Me! Me! MEEE!" Nutty said excitedly. He swiftly made his way to the helmet. He lifted it. It was heavier than he thought. He was about to place it on his head, but then he noticed Lammy, with her arm still hanging halfway up.

Then Nutty asked Lammy, "Oh, umm... I'm-I'm sorry. Did you want to try it first, Lammy?"

The sheep lowered her arm. "Oh, no, you can try it first. I don't mind," she told him. Then she smiled sweetly at him.

That smile caught Nutty off guard. He stared at her again, not paying attention to the heavy helmet raised above his head. It was no longer steady in his hands any more. It escaped from his grasp, and the helmet fell to the hard tiled floor with a loud thud.

"NO!" hollered Sniffles before he rushed over and bent down to pick up the helmet. He lifted it carefully and examined it. It was damaged. It had a large dent on the top, and its antenna was now crooked. A few blue sparks flew out of it.

Nutty watched as Sniffles, who wore a frown on his face, placed it on the table again. Lammy stood on her spot with her paws over her mouth, with her eyes wide. Sniffles turned his head to Nutty with a glare. "Darn it, Nutty. I just finished the helmet, and now look at it! It's broken now. Why did you suddenly let it go?" he complained.

"I...I d-don't...I don't kn-Aw, I'm sorry, Sniffles. I feel really bad about this," Nutty said uncomfortably.

Sniffles sighed, showing irritation. Lammy removed her paws from her mouth and stepped forward. She said, "Sniffles, don't get a-a-a-a-angry. Nutty didn't mean to drop the helmet. We both know tha-a-a-a-at he wouldn't just dro-o-op it o-on purpose," Then she glanced at Nutty. Nutty gave a weak smile. Lammy turned to head to Sniffles again and continued. "A-a-a-a-and besides, you built it in three da-a-a-a-ays, remember? Three! Tha-a-a-at's impressive. I don't know anyone else who can build a Telepa-a-a-a-a-athy Helmet so quickly." Lammy giggled.

When Nutty heard her giggle, he felt this fuzzy feeling in his chest.

Lammy asked Sniffles, "Umm, is the helmet COMPLETELY broken?"

Sniffles's eyes left Lammy's. They moved to the Telepathy Helmet. His frown shrunk. "You know what," he began, "it isn't that bad. If making the whole thing only took three days, then it should take even less time for me to fix just a part of it. It's just the top part of the the helmet that needs fixing."

Lammy beamed. "Grea-a-a-at!" she said cheerfully. "Uhh, would you like any help from me a-a-a-a-and Nutty?"

Sniffles was now smiling. He wasn't mad at Nutty anymore. So he told her, "Oh, it's fine. I'll work on it by myself. But thank you." Sniffles stepped away from the table. "Well, I'm off to get the materials I need. It's time to get busy." He walked to the door. Lammy looked at the clock on one of the walls.

She gasped. "Oh, no! I'm la-a-a-a-a-ate!" Nutty watched as she ran to where her pickle was resting, picked it up, and hurried to the door, getting there before Sniffles. Right before she left the room, she called to Nutty and Sniffles, "I'll see you guys la-a-a-a-ater. I have a tea pa-a-a-arty with Giggles and Petunia. Nutty, I don't think you'd like to join. You pro-o-o-o-o-obably think it's a girl thing." Nutty shrugged and chuckled. Lammy chuckled back and said, "See you la-a-a-ater, guys." Nutty wished she didn't have to leave. He still felt that Sniffles was mad it him.

"Eh...I have somewhere to go too. I'm late for...uh...a meeting," Nutty told Sniffles.

"Oh, a meeting? For what?" inquired Sniffles.

"For...stuff..." said Nutty. There was a brief pause. "Bye." He power-walked out the door.

"Whatever," muttered Sniffles.

Nutty made his way outside. He trudged on the green walkway that led to to Sniffles's front door, away from the house. The walkway lie between two lines of ruby-colored mushrooms. Nutty's feet carried him through the town; he was on his way back to the park. There he was again, walking on the same sidewalk as before, the one where he ate that lollipop with red, blue, and green swirls. Only now, he was lollipop-less. His head tilted upwards. His eyes rested on a particularly white and fluffy cloud. Lammy returned to his thoughts. Nutty felt disappointed by himself. She probably really wanted to try on the Telepathy Helmet. But his clumsy, butter paws had to let it fall so that she couldn't use it. But what made him let the helmet go? The squirrel thought about that smile that Lammy gave him before dropping the helmet. Why did she have to be so distracting? Things weren't like this before.

That girl just didn't want to leave his mind, did she?

The sugar-loving maniac was now in the park once again. Now Cuddles and Toothy were on the swings, taking Giggles and Petunia's places. Cub played with a toy truck in the sand box while Pop sat on the bench that Lumpy was previously on, taking a nap. Flaky was at the slide, but she hesitated at the top. She looked down, shivered, and then shook her head. Then the red porcupine carefully climbed back down. Handy could be seen fixing the monkey bars, somehow getting the job done with those nubby arms of his. Someone walked past Nutty, going in the opposite direction of his. The person wore a tan fedora and glasses with a thick black frame. He was sky blue, he had a big bushy tail, and for some reason he wore a red mask behind those glasses. Interestingly, that guy and Splendid were never seen together in the same place.

The squirrel's ears perked up when he heard the ring of a bell. _Ding-aling-aling,_ the bell went. Nutty's eyes dashed to the Mole, who was rolling an ice cream cart. "OOOOOOOOH!" said Nutty as he eyed the cart. "ICE-CREAM!" He licked his lips. Then he dashed toward the Mole. "Ice-cream, ice-cream, ice-cream! Ha ha!" cheered Nutty. The Mole waited for his order. "I'll take one with chocolate, some vanilla, some strawberry, blueberry, some butterscotch, some cotton-candy flavored, some lemon custard, some orange sherbet, peanut butter, and pink bubble gum! Add chocolate syrup, sprinkles, marshmallows, chocolate chips, and licorice too! Oh! And don't forget the cherry on top!" ordered Nutty with the grin of a psychopath. He handed the Mole several golden coins with an image of an acorn printed on each of them. If the Mole was anyone else, he would have been freaked out by that psychopathic look on the light green rodent's face. But he was blind, so he couldn't be creeped out any face. He was a little creeped out, just a little, by just LISTENING to Nutty. He sounded insane. But he didn't care. He just took the cash from Nutty. It took him a while to get the ice cream done.

The Mole got all of the toppings right, and he even remembered the cherry. But he put in a few flavors that Nutty didn't ask for. Again, he was blind. But Nutty didn't seem too notice the mistakes. He gave the ice-cream a few licks. Then he opened up his mouth to take a bite. But he froze when he looked over to a few people sitting on a grassy area just twenty feet away. They sat on a blanket near an oak tree. Lammy was one of them. Nutty stared at her. Again. Lifty and Shifty, two dark green raccoon twins who loved to steal, snuck up behind him. They snickered silently. Shifty's paw traveled over to the ice cream, grabbed it by the cone, and swiftly pulled it out of Nutty's own paw. The mischievous little trolls then fled, snickering.

Strangely, Nutty didn't notice that the ice-cream was no longer in his paw. His eyes were still fixed on that sheep.

He frowned, and then shook his head. He just decided to stop staring and just walk away. What if she noticed him staring? Nutty thought that Lammy would probably think he was a freak for doing that. He turned on his heel and continued on the walkway he was on.

He didn't get far.

"Hi, Nutty! I didn't know you were here!" Nutty turned on his heel again, more slowly this time, and faced the one who called to him. It was her.

Nutty faced Lammy who sat twenty-five feet away from him now. She waved to him. The light green rodent gave a shy grin, and waved back.

Lammy said, "We've go-o-o-o-o-t cookies! Cho-o-o-ocolate chip! You wa-a-a-a-a-ant some?"

Nutty beamed. Of course he would like some cookies. He dashed toward Lammy, Giggles, and Petunia's direction. Next to the picnic basket on their picnic blanket, there was a white china plate filled with chocolate chip cookies. "WHOO HOO!" he hollered. He grabbed a handful of them.

"It's nice to see you again so soon," Lammy told Nutty before giggling.

That giggle. It sounded so... nice to Nutty's ears.

"Hello, Nutty," Giggles greeted Nutty.

"Hey, Nutty," Petunia also greeted.

Nutty greeted back, "Hi," and waved to both of them. He completely forgot that they were with her. They smiled at him.

Nutty then wolfed down his cookies. Lammy and Giggles chuckled as they watched him do this. Petunia, on the other hand, thought that Nutty should eat less crudely. She also thought about him choking, hoping that he wouldn't.

"You can sit down if you want," said Lammy. So Nutty sat down next to Lammy, on her right. He sat with his legs stretched in front of him while she sat Indian style. The plate with the pickle sat right in front of Nutty's feet. That very same pickle.

The sugar addict decided to rest his paw on the blanket. His paw almost landed on top of hers. Before it could happen, Nutty realized just in time. He placed his paw down near hers so that it was just two inches away. He knew it would have been awkward. Lammy didn't notice him avoid her paw.

"Would you like a cup of tea, Nutty?" Lammy offered the squirrel. "It's bla-a-a-a-a-ack tea."


	3. Chapter 3

"Yeah, I'd like some," Nutty answered Lammy. So she grabbed her teapot from the handle with one paw and poured black tea into a pink china teacup, which was held by her other paw. Then she placed the teacup on a pink china saucer. After the teacup was placed on the saucer, Lammy, using both paws, carefully handed the tea to him. "Here you go," Lammy said.

He took the tea from her and blew on it to cool it off. When he was sure that it was cool enough, he took a sip. Then he grimaced from the bitter taste. It lacked sugar.

"Oh, I forgo-o-o-o-ot the sugar,"said Lammy while gently slamming her paw onto her forehead.

Petunia picked up a teaspoon and scooped up a spoonful from a bowl that was full of it. "One spoonful or two?" she asked.

Lammy laughed. "He's pro-o-o-o-bably going to a-a-ask for seven or e-e-e-e-eight, huh, Nutty?" she estimated.

The light green squirrel shook his head. "That's not enough," he stated.

Giggles widened her eyes. "How about twelve?" she guessed.

"Nope," answered Nutty.

Petunia gasped. "Sixteen?" she tried.

Nutty shook his head. "Uh uh."

The three girls gazed at Nutty. "Then... how ma-a-a-a-any spoonfuls DO you need?" questioned Lammy.

"How much sugar do you got?" he answered, with a question.

The three girls exchanged glances. Giggles picked up the bowl of sugar and passed it to Nutty and handed him the teaspoon. His eyes shined with delight. They seemed to have grown, and they resembled shiny, puppy dog eyes, making him look more adorable.

"Yum yum yum yum yum!" said the excited sugar maniac. He reached for the teaspoon and started adding spoonfuls of sugar into his teacup, causing splashes to land here and there on the picnic blanket.

He added in twenty spoonfuls and mixed swiftly, causing a mini tornado to form in the tea. He took another sip of it. The girls were positive that it was enough sugar.

"Hmm..." said Nutty. "Still not sweet enough."

"Are you sure?" a surprised Giggles spoke.

The squirrel eyed the bowl of sugar. He lifted it, and poured the rest of the sugar into his teacup. His teacup was now overflowing with wet sugar. Lammy, Giggles, and Petunia just sat with their jaws dropped. "You can't be serious!" exclaimed Petunia.

Nutty now sipped the sugar. There was a pause.

"Perfect!" he declared.

Giggles, Petunia, and Lammy were all astonished.

He finished it all rather quickly. If there was any sugar left, Nutty would have asked for another cupful of tea. But there wasn't; it was all gone because of him.

After a moment, Giggles commented, "Wow. That was a LOT of sugar you used," before taking a sip of her own tea.

"Yeah, I could never eat that much at one time," added Petunia, also before sipping from her own cup.

Lammy stared at Nutty for a moment, with a look of both shock and amusement on her face. She shook her head. "Wo-o-o-ow, Nutty, You sure a-a-are quite a-a-an interesting fellow," the sheep told him. She continued on her own drink. Nutty smiled to himself.

Since Nutty was done drinking, he just sat in his spot silently. He searched in his head for a conversation starter. When he found a good one, he opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say a word, he noticed something about the plate that was right in front of him.

The plate with the pickle... had no pickle.

"Hmm?" Nutty said as he looked around, searching for the fruit. He checked under the plate. The squirrel shrugged after several seconds and looked up at the sky again. He saw another cloud. It was a white and fluffy one. Then he looked to his left where Lammy was. Her wool coat was white and fluffy. It bore a huge resemblance to the cloud. So did that small tuft of wool on the top of her head that he was now looking at. It was where her purple bow was. Without thinking about doing it, Nutty moved_ his_ eyes down to _her_ eyes. They were very pleasant and feminine. The staring. It was happening _again_. Lammy looked up from her teacup after finishing her tea. Her eyes met his.

"Wha-a-a-a-at?" she bleated.

"Huh? Um- er... nothing." he nervously replied. The squirrel looked down and felt his cheeks grown warm.

Lammy frowned. She picked up her shiny saucer and held it up to her face. She examined her reflection, checking if her face had anything on it, like a dandelion seed or a bug. There was nothing.

She didn't know why he was gazing at her. Neither did he.

...

Unbeknownst to the group of four, a pickle wearing a black hat with an indigo ribbon sneaked his way over to the box of teabags. He had small black eyes, a black, curled, French-looking mustache, and skinny, stick-like limbs, which were also black. From behind his back, he pulled out a small spray bottle. On the bottle, there was a sticker with a picture of a skull on it. Under the skull, two bones crossed to form an "X." Poison.

This was that 'best friend" Lammy was talking about...

Mr. Pickels.

The pickle sprayed the dangerous liquid all over the teabags in the box. He made sure he sprayed well. After doing so, the fiendish fruit jumped into the picnic basket, obscured from anyone's view.

...

Giggles and Petunia were having one of their girly conversations. Like about the newest clothes and accessories they saw in stores, the drama and romance movies that they watch, and about their boyfriends. Yes, they had boyfriends. Giggles was currently dating Cuddles, while Petunia was with Handy. They giggled as they talked about the funny things that Cuddles and Handy did sometimes. Petunia said "Aww," when Giggles mentioned something romantic that Cuddles did for her. Giggles said the same thing when Petunia told her about the sweet things that Handy did for _her_. The two continued chatting and giggling.

Lammy could relate to Giggles and Petunia about the clothes and movies, but not about the boyfriend topic.

She was single.

However, the sheep _did_ think it would be nice to have a boyfriend. But she was quite shy about that sort of thing. Her eyes moved over to Nutty and stayed on him for a bit. She studied his eyes. One was black. The other was green. They were quite different from each other. Nutty could move his black eye anywhere he wanted. But his green eye faced downward most of the time. That is, when he was still. When the squirrel moved his head, the pupil bounced around in all directions. When Lammy first knew Nutty, his eyes somewhat freaked her out. But now they didn't. However, they _still_ intrigued her.

After a few more words and chuckles, Giggles and Petunia reached into the box of teabags and added one more teabag into their cups. The two waited a bit for the tea to spread in their drinks. Then they took a swig.

For a few seconds, they felt fine. But after those few seconds, they both suddenly gagged. Those gags soon turned into coughs. Neither Giggles nor Petunia could stop coughing if they wanted to. The coughing sounded horrible. They sounded like they were going to die. Giggles clutched her throat. Petunia got on her paws and knees.

Nutty and Lammy were now standing while watching this, horrified. "What's happening?!" cried a bewildered Nutty.

"I don't know!" Lammy cried back.

Once the coughing ended, Giggles fell to the ground and lay with her arms outstretched, face-up. Petunia also fell, but she lie face-down.

The squirrel and the sheep rushed over to them. They couldn't tell if the girls were unconscious or dead. Lammy bent down and felt their wrists to check their pulses.

"I don't feel a-a-a-anything!" she whimpered.

Nutty panicked and shrieked. "THEY'RE DEAD!"

Lammy, who was obviously also panicking, glanced down to the teacups and the saucers. The saucers were fine because they landed on the picnic blanket. But the teacups were shattered because they collided with the saucers. The frightened sheep thought about the tea. Then she glanced over to the box of teabags. Right next to it stood a small spray bottle that a had a large sticker with a picture of a skull with crossbones on it. She knew what was in the bottle. Lammy then rested her eyes on the plate where she left her pickle. She saw that the pickle was gone. The sheep gasped and covered her mouth. She was now standing again.

"No... he_ couldn't_ ha-a-a-ave..." mumbled Lammy.

Nutty heard her, and he stood up. "Huh? _Who_ couldn't have?! What are you talking about?!" he said.

Lammy didn't answer him. She scanned the picnic blanket, hoping to find a certain green fruit.

She walked back and forth a couple of times while her eyes traveled around the area under the leaves of the oak tree while the squirrel watched her. "Where did he go?!" she shouted to herself.

"Who is _he_?" inquired Nutty, with his eyes wide.

"Mr. Pickels!" answered Lammy. "He was here no-o-ot too lo-o-ong ago."

Nutty wore a look on his face that displayed utter disbelief. "You're asking that _now_?" he said.

"Y-yes- it's importa-a-a-ant!" she said back.

Nutty scoffed, "What's so important about the pickle?! It's a _pickle_!" _  
_

"Please, just..." began Lammy. She gasped again.

...

Something small and green crawled up from behind Nutty and onto his left shoulder... it was Mr. Pickels. The cruel pickle looked at Lammy. He gave her a friendly smile. But Lammy didn't smile back. She just froze. Mr. Pickles pulled something else from behind his back. This time it was a shard of china, undoubtedly from one of the shattered teacups. This particular shard was rather large, and it could be used as a knife. Perfect for stabbing someone...

The pickle held the shard with both hands, raised his arms, and got ready to swing it down at Nutty's heart.

"NO!" hollered Lammy. She ran over to where the squirrel was and caught the shard before it could hurt him. Mr. Pickels let go of the shard and leaped down from Nutty's shoulder and hid somewhere else.

...

Nutty was too scared to run; Lammy stood just a foot in front of him, and there was a large teacup shard in her raised paw.

It looked like she was about to stab him... but it seemed that she suddenly changed her mind about it. She threw the shard down at the ground.

Now the squirrel was confused. Still sort of scared, but the confusion outweighed the fear. Wasn't the sheep just about to kill him? And why did she just stop like that? This was very odd. However, Nutty was quite relieved.

Lammy exhaled deeply. Then she straightened up, stepped forward toward Nutty and placed her left paw over his left shoulder, the one that Mr. Pickels was sitting on. This made him flinch, and his head turned to her. He was taken aback from the contact. She peered over that shoulder and her eyes searched the space behind Nutty. Mr. Pickels wasn't seen anywhere.

"W-where did he... he's go-o-o-one!" bleated Lammy. She removed her paw, stepped away from the squirrel, and scanned the area once more. "He was just o-o-on your shoulder a few seconds ago!"

Nutty stood on his spot, looking at her. He thought about how her paw was on him just now. The squirrel shook his head and went back to focusing on the situation.

...

Lammy found Mr. Pickels standing a good thirty feet away from her on a patch of grass. He waved to her. How did he get there so fast?

"HE-E-E-E-EY!" Lammy barked.

Then he turned and ran.

...

"GET BA-A-A-ACK HERE!" yelled Lammy.

She ran a small distance toward the direction of where she spotted Mr. Pickles and stopped. Abruptly, she turned back to Nutty. "I'm go-o-o-onna go ca-a-atch him. Nutty, find a phone booth- or someone with a phone- and call an a-a-ambulance for Petunia a-a-and Giggles," she ordered. She went back to running off. "I've go-o-o-otta hurry!"

Nutty didn't see anyone in the grassy distance. Who was she yelling at? Who was she chasing? The pickle? It couldn't have just ran away! He was worried for Lammy. The squirrel glanced at Giggles and Petunia, still not moving. He was worried for them too. Nutty looked behind him toward the walkway he was on where Lammy found him. Disco Bear was walking there, instead of jogging like earlier. The orange bear was wearing a white tank top, red sweatpants, and a white sweatband with a red horizontal stripe. He was talking on a cellphone. Maybe to a relative.

"Aha!" said Nutty with a brief smile. He zoomed over to Disco Bear. When he reached him, he shouted rapidly, "Disco Bear! Disco Bear! Disco Bear! I need your phone! It's an emergency!"

Disco Bear stopped walking and looked at Nutty. He said on the phone, "Hold on a sec," and covered the speaker with his paw. "Sorry, can you repeat that?"

Nutty grabbed him by the front of the tank top with both paws and pulled him in a threatening-looking manner. "YOU'RE PHONE, DARN IT!" the light green rodent yelled. "I NEED IT!"

Disco Bear was frightened. "Woah, woah, okay, okay, you can use it!" he said. With his paws, he made a "calm down" gesture. "Relax, man! Sheesh!" He said into his cellphone, "I'll call you back, 'k bro? All right, cool. Later." He pressed the hang up button and handed the phone to Nutty, who then let go of the bear's tank top and took it from him.

Nutty was about to press a button, but his paw stopped. He thought for a short moment. "Uhh..." the squirrel said. He turned his head to Disco Bear and asked, "What's the number for the ambulance?"

The orange bear widened his eyes. He now looked serious. "The ambulance?" he said. "It's the 9-1-1 number."

"Oh," said Nutty. He got ready to press a button a second time. He stopped again. He turned his head to Disco Bear once more. "What's the 9-1-1 number?"

Disco Bear gave him an sarcastic look.


	4. Chapter 4

...

Lammy was steadily catching up Mr. Pickels. They ended up at the edge of the block of which the park was located in. The chase was now taking place on a sidewalk, and it was headed downhill. Mr. Pickles didn't seem to be getting tired at all, but Lammy was huffing and puffing.

"Go-o-otta... get... him..." panted the sheep.

...

The Mole was pushing his ice-cream cart uphill on that same sidewalk, hoping for more customers.

...

Mr. Pickels was getting close to the cart. When he reached it, he got on his side and rolled under the cart down its front side. When he got to the other side of the cart, the back side that was being pushed, he ran right around the Mole. But before continuing on his path away from Lammy, he went back to the Mole and gave him a sweep kick that knocked him down. Then he turned and went back to running downhill, leaving the Mole on the ground.

...

Lammy reached the ice-cream cart after. She jumped up on top it. Then, from there, she jumped down, over the Mole, and tumbled forward on the sidewalk. The sheep got up quickly and looked down at the purplish mole. "So-o-o-o-orry!" she said to him. Then she went back to chasing after the fruit, saying, "Mr. Pickels! Sto-o-o-o-op!" The Mole was left behind, nursing his kicked ankle.

Cub was rolling his little toy firetruck, sitting on the sidewalk. As he played with it, he made vocal sound effects such as "Vroom" for the engine or "WOOOOOOOOOO" for the siren. He didn't have his father with him; Pop was still napping on the bench by the playground. Cub just wandered his way up here.

...

Mr. Pickels was getting near the child as he ran. When he got close enough, the pickle grabbed the toy truck from Cub's paws and took a few steps back from him. Then he placed the truck on the ground and shoved it, hard, towards Cub. The truck hit the boy on his right foot, probably giving it a bruise.

...

Cub yelped when the toy hit him. He bent his leg, pulling his foot toward himself to look at it. There was no bruise... yet. It was going to form later. Lammy was with Cub and his toy truck now. Out of desperation, she put her right foot on the truck and propelled herself with her left, using the truck as a skateboard, or a single skate shoe. She rode it towards where Mr. Pickels was going. "I'm so-o-o-o-orry!" she called back to Cub. Cub still sat on his spot, crying.

Lumpy was taking a walk, feeling relaxed and carefree. Lammy wheeled downhill after Mr. Pickels, gaining on him faster than she was when running.

She's got him now! Oh wait, no she hasn't.

"A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-AH!" screamed the sheep when she saw Lumpy ahead of her.

...

Mr. Pickels simply ran around the light blue moose.

...

Unfortunately for Lammy, she didn't know how to steer on the truck.

"Huh?" Lumpy said in his deep voice. He saw Lammy riding rapidly toward him. "A-A-A-AH!" he shrieked, with a voice that was suddenly higher than Lammy's.

_BAM._

The sheep collided with the moose, tumbling with him briefly. Lammy landed on her face on the rough, hard sidewalk, a few feet away from Lumpy, who ended up lying on his back. Lumpy sat up, looked around, and turned to Lammy. He gave her a glare. "Watch where you're going, will ya!" he barked while shaking his fist.

"So-o-o-orry! I'm so so-o-o-orry," apologized a guilty Lammy. Then she went back to chasing Mr. Pickles, forgetting about the toy truck.

Lumpy got up and dusted himself off. He started walking again and muttered to himself, "Hmph. Some people need to pay attention to where their going-WHAH!" He tripped over a fire hydrant.

...

The chase was still going. Lammy was panting badly, but she was not going to give up. Mr. Pickels was nearing the curved corner of the block. Just ahead, there waited a four-lane road. Mr. Pickels hopped off the curb and down to the road, jaywalking. "WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" yelled the dumbfounded sheep.

The pickle stopped and looked back at her in the middle of the third lane. He seemed to be_ waiting_ for her. Lammy was a bit relieved that he decided to stop, but she would be even more relieved when she caught him. So she ran straight towards Mr. Pickels. There were no cars on the first and second lanes that Lammy crossed, but when she came to the third lane, where he was...

There came one.

...

A navy blue car was driving at twenty-five miles per hour on that third lane, steadily wheeling towards the sheep and the pickle. Its horn sounded.

_HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK._

It was a loud and long one. Lammy froze in her tracks, now standing in the middle of the third lane, where Mr. Pickels was. Her eyes locked on the approaching vehicle. She didn't even scream; she was paralyzed.

_SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH_.

Lammy covered her ears to lessen the piercing noise. Her eyes were squeezed shut. When she heard through her muffled ears that it was over, she removed her paws from her ears and looked up at the car before her.

The very front part of the car was just a foot away from touching her. She gasped.

The driver's door opened. A green bear who wore a green camouflaged army uniform stepped out. He ran to Lammy.

Startled, Lammy took sevaral steps back.

"Lammy! Oh my gosh, are you okay?!" asked Flippy, worried. He had his eyes wide.

Lammy was silent for a bit. Then she exhaled deeply.

"Yea-a-ah... yea-a-a-ah I'm all right," she said, sounding uncertain.

"Are you sure?" said Flippy.

"Yes..." Lammy answered.

"What are you doing here? This isn't where you're supposed to cross!" he told her.

"I know! But... I'm a-a-after someone! It's really important tha-a-at I ca-a-a-atch him..." Lammy explained.

Flippy tilted his head slightly. He was curious. "Really? Who?" he asked.

...

Mr. Pickels, who stood on Lammy's right, looked up at her, and then at Flippy, and then at her again. He glanced down to her right leg. Suddenly, he jumped to it and clung on. From there, he leaped up to her side, grasping her wool coat. He used it to climb up to her right shoulder. Lammy's eyes grew in surprise when she looked to her right, at him. The pickle's little black eyes focused on Flippy. Then, the fruit propelled himself from Lammy's shoulder to Flippy, with his tiny fist aimed at the green bear's face.

...

_POW. _

Flippy was sent flying backwards from the impact of the punch. He was hit through the windshield of his car, which shattered, ending up inside.

...

Mr. Pickels did a front flip before landing back on the pavement.

...

Lammy's jaw dropped. Boy, could that "_fruit_ _punch_."

"OH... MY..." said Lammy loudly, looking utterly stupefied.

She couldn't see Flippy in the car right now, but she could hear him groaning in pain.

This made her yelp, worried for the bear. She turned her head to Mr. Pickels, who was now running again. He was already past the fourth lane and on the other side of the road. The pickle hopped up to the sidewalk of the new block and ran on it. "HEY!" she shouted at him. Then _she_ gave a groan, but unlike Flippy's, hers was out of irritation. Lammy ran after Mr. Pickels, who seemed to have infinite stamina.

"Come... ba-a-a-a-ck..." she huffed. She didn't want to have to chase him. She didn't want to have to chase anyone. This was exhausting. She just wanted get to _rest_. There had to be _some_ way to catch Mr. Pickles. While sprinting, she looked downward. Her eyes stopped at a round, grey rock that she was running towards. It was the size of a baseball. Lammy had an idea.

She bent down, while still running, and quickly scooped up the rock with her left paw. Then she passed the rock from her left paw to her right. With the rock in her right paw, Lammy pulled back her arm, still not ceasing to run.

She aimed. Her small target was well ahead of her, probably a good thirty feet away. And it's not easy to hit a moving target. Lammy closed her eyes, took a very deep breath, and opened them again. Her focus was strong.

She threw the rock.

The round rock rocketed ahead of Lammy. It passed through the air with speed. It moved swiftly and steadily, getting closer and closer to a certain running fruit with a top hat.

_BOMP._

The baseball-sized rock struck the middle of Mr. Pickels's backside. It caused him to fall forward onto the dusty sidewalk. He was no longer running.

"Yes!" Lammy said, feeling victorious. She slowed down her strides. The running turned into jogging. Then the jogging turned into power-walking. When she got within a few feet of Mr. Pickels, her steps got slower. Lammy was now taking slow steps toward him. When she got to him, she looked down at him. She bent down and picked him up. She turned him around in her paws so that she could look upon his mustached face. His eyes and mouth were shut. His curled mustache was still neat after that fall. He looked peaceful, like a sleeping infant.

...

Lammy held the faceless pickle. A small smile formed on her lips. "Go-o-otcha," she bleated gently.

* * *

After Nutty saw that Giggles and Petunia had been carried away into an ambulance truck, headed for a safe place to possibly have their poisoned bodies treated, he decided to search for that lavender-skinned sheep.

"Now where did she go?" Nutty asked himself out loud.


	5. Chapter 5

The light green, candy-adorned rodent jogged across the grassy field in the direction of which he saw Lammy go after this "Mr. Pickels." He was muttering to himself along the way.

"Mr. Pickels... she actually gave a name to that stupid vegetable? What's so special about 'him'?" he said, making quotation marks with the pointer and middle digits of his paws when he said "him". "It isn't even alive! It can't walk, it can't jump, can't see, can't hear, can't belch, can't _breathe. _It can't even _talk_ to her!" Nutty groaned and clenched his teeth. "I don't know _how_ she could like carrying it around every day. It's just a stupid, ugly, useless, stupid, worthless, lame, stupid, ridiculous, stupid, pathetic, poopy, stupid PICKLE! Oh, AND it's stupid! Man, that thing makes me so mad and... not... happy." He was almost at the sidewalk. "_I _can actually walk and jump and see and do the other stuff._ I _can actually talk to Lammy! Why does she pay more attention to that dumb pickle than _me_?!"

Suddenly, right after he finished that last sentence, Nutty stopped jogging. He now just stood. He was standing VERY close to the sidewalk; it was only just a baby's step away.

"Wait... what?" Nutty said, shocked at his words. "...What did I just say?" Nutty played that sentence about Lammy's attention again in his head. Then he played it again. And again. And again... and again. His eyes grew wide, and his mouth hung open. "Why did I say_ that_?" the squirrel asked himself. He felt extremely confused. "Why _would_ I care so much if Lammy likes the pickle more than me?" said Nutty. His paw was placed on his head, displaying deep thought. After little while, his feet led him right on the sidewalk of the park, going downhill, the way that Lammy went. He was thinking much more _about_ the sheep herself than trying to find her.

He shook his head, trying to get rid of his thoughts of the sheep girl.

"Hmm..." said Nutty. Then he uttered a small gasp. "I know!" he told himself. He reached onto one of his cheeks and pulled off the small sucker by its white stick. "Yummy!" said Nutty, giggling. "_This _oughta to keep her out of my mind." He put the crimson sucker in his mouth. It was cherry-flavored. _Artificial_ cherry flavored. Nutty sucked on the treat while laughing. Thoughts about the sucker were now in his mind. It was so sugary and scrumptious and... sweet. _Sweet_. The cherry-flavored sucker was _very_ sweet... just like Lammy. She was always so sweet and kind and friendly towards Nutty. That was something he liked a_ lot_. Nutty found that his thoughts about the sucker had been quickly replaced by thoughts about Lammy. They made him feel... happy. Forgetting about the treat in his mouth, and no longer laughing, a dreamy smile formed on the squirrel's face. Realizing that Lammy has returned to his mind, that dreamy smile vanished, and Nutty gave himself a small slap on the cheek.

"Darn it! I'm thinking about her again. Just... gotta... stop... doing... that!" grumbled Nutty, smacking himself on the head within every pause of that sentence. He continued his way down the sidewalk. Every time he thought about Lammy, he would scold himself for it. He was coming closer to the spot where Lammy crashed into Lumpy when she was riding Cub's toy truck. Since the sucker wasn't helping, Nutty stuck it back onto the fur on his cheek. Sighing, Nutty glanced over to a tree. It was rather large, and it was rich in olive green leaves. Its branches were a very dark brown, and from a distance, they looked black. Many of the branches were curved upward. They were_ dark_, and _curved... _just like Lammy's eyelashes.

"Hmm... her eyelashes sure are nice- wait, _what_?!" Nutty said, annoyed with himself. "Okay, I'm gonna look somewhere else."

So he did. He was now looking down at a small plant with verbena flowers that he was passing. The flowers were bunched together. Nutty has constantly seen these flowers planted around the park. He liked them; they made the park look neat. The particular verbena plant that he was looking at bore purple flowers. Purple. The same color as Lammy's bow.

"She has good taste in bows-grr! I'm doing it _again_!" growled the squirrel.

He grabbed his head and turned it so that it could face the sky. "Just look up _there_! There isn't anything in the sky that can remind me of Lam- I mean- _her_. I mean it has birds and planes, and other stuff. And sometimes Splendid flies in it." Nutty saw several sparrows, crows, and pigeons soaring around up in the azure sky. A couple of planes came into view too. But then this one thing in the sky caught his attention. What was it? Was it a bird? Was it a plane? Was it Splendid? Nope. It was a _cloud_. Nutty forgot all about clouds. The cloud slowly drifted across the sky. Its whiteness and fluffiness sent Lammy back into the light green squirrel's mind.

"It looks just like Lammy's coat. It's so-AAAAH!" Nutty tripped over a fire hydrant. The _same _scarlet fire hydrant that Lumpy tripped over earlier.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!" cried the irate squirrel.

"Heh heh heh... I have you know, you little jerk!" snickered a voice several feet near Nutty on the grassy area next to the sidewalk.

"Huh?" said Nutty quietly before rubbing his right shin and getting up.

He turned to where he heard the voice. It was high and sort of squeaky.

It was Sniffles. The light blue, bespectacled anteater had his long, tube-like nose on the ground. His nose slithered after an ant, who ran on his hind legs. "Aah! Aah! Aah!" the ant shouted. His voice was so tiny that Sniffles could barely hear. However, Nutty was able to to hear the shouts well with his keen squirrel ears.

Sniffles was on his paws and knees, crawling after the ant. The ant ran for his life, still shouting. But then, his shouting ceased when an ant hill came into view. "Aha!" said the ant gladly. He sped up his running and dashed up the ant hill. There was a small wooden door with a golden doorknob at the opening of the hill. Its hinges were also gold. When the ant reached it, he rapidly knocked on the door. In no time, the door opened. There were several ants inside who were waiting to see who it was that knocked. They were about to ask why that ant knocked, but then they saw Sniffles advancing upon them. Understanding, they all grabbed onto the ant's arms and yanked him inside the hill. They slammed the door shut. The door was locked. Nutty and Sniffles heard all sorts of different locks being locked on the other side of that door. Then the sounds of rattling chains were heard. Then they heard hammering. Then they heard drilling sounds. A few more locks were locked. High-tech beeping noised were made next. Finally, a female computer voice said, "System activated."

The anteater sadly stood up. "Darn," he muttered, kicking the ground.

"Huh. Bummer. You almost got him," Nutty said to him.

Sniffles's ears perked up. His head turned to Nutty. "Oh hey, Nutty!" he called with smile. He ran up to Nutty. Then he told him, "Dude, I have GREAT news!"

"You brought me candy?" guessed Nutty.

"...No..." said Sniffles, now half-smiling.

"You brought me chocolate?"

"No."

"Cupcakes?"

"Nope. I didn't bring you anything to eat," Sniffles told Nutty.

Nutty thought for a moment. "You won the lottery?" he guessed.

"No," answered Sniffles.

"You got a girlfriend?

"No."

"You're getting less embarrassing glasses?"

"No-hey!" said the slightly indignant anteater.

"You've found a way to fix that voice of yours?" tried Nutty.

"No!" shouted Sniffles, now more indignant.

"You're getting surgery for your-"

"All right, that's enough. You're done guessing," declared Sniffles with his eyelids hanging half-closed. "Now... the good news is... that... I'm done fixing the Telepathy Helmet!"

Nutty gasped and responded, "No way! Really? Already?"

"Yeah!" said Sniffles looking proud. He had the right to be.

"Cool! Let's go see it!" said an excited Nutty.

Sniffles jogged over to a large, nearby rock. Right on top of the rock sat the Telepathy Helmet. "I got it right here," called Sniffles. There was something different about the helmet. Unlike before, it was steel-plated. Sniffles picked it up and jogged back over to Nutty with it in his arms.

"Whoa, it looks different!" Nutty commented.

"Yup," said Sniffles. "I added a steel covering around it." The anteater handed the helmet over to Nutty. Nutty raised both his paws as if saying "Stop."

"Umm... I don't wanna, ya know, _hold_ it," said Nutty, rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't wanna drop it again."

"Oh, that? Pfft," said Sniffles, using one of his paws to make an "Oh, please" gesture. "Don't worry about it." He shoved the helmet at Nutty, making him take it.

Nutty was almost brought down to the ground with the helmet. It was heavier than before. He looked at the helmet in his paws and then at Sniffles again. "Are you sure?" he asked.

The anteater put his paws behind his back and smiled. "Drop it," he commanded.

"What?" said Nutty, wide-eyed.

"_Drop_ it," repeated Sniffles.

Nutty raised the helmet a little. "Drop... this?"

"I don't see anything else for you to drop," confirmed Sniffles.

The squirrel looked at the helmet again. He raised it above his head and threw at the ground. It made a thud. This thud was louder than the last. The helmet rolled onto its side. Nutty and Sniffles looked at the spot on the sidewalk that it hit. There was no dent. That is, not on the helmet. The helmet was perfectly fine. But there _was_ a dent... on the sidewalk. Several cracks formed as well in the dented area. Nutty's jaw dropped in amazement. "Whoooooooaaaaaaaaaahhh," he said slowly.

"Yeah, I know. The helmet is now unbreakable," stated Sniffles.

"_That_ is AWESOME!" exclaimed the impressed squirrel.

"Right? Hey, why don't you try it out?" offered the anteater.

"Sweet!" said Nutty. He bent over and picked up the heavy helmet. He raised his arms and placed it onto his head. The helmet may have been heavy, but it was a perfect fit.

"Hmm... Sniffles, you're having thoughts about how good a funnel cake sounds right now, aren't you?" asked Nutty with a wide grin.

"Nutty, those are _your _thoughts," said Sniffles removing his paws from behind his back. "I forgot to press the 'on' button."

Sniffles stepped over to Nutty and pressed a red button on the part of the helmet that covered Nutty's forehead. The red button glowed, and the antenna at the top of the helmet shined light blue, but then quickly went back to being silver.

"Now try," Sniffles told him. "What am I thinking right now?"

"Umm..." said Nutty, squinting his eyes. Those eyes shot wide open when he heard a voice in his head... and it wasn't his own. This voice was high, and sort of squeaky. It sort of echoed in his head.

_My family will be so proud when they see what I've created,_ said the voice. It was_ Sniffles's_ voice.

Nutty gasped, hardly believing what just happened. "OH MY-IT'S-DID YOU-I JUST HEARD-HOLY-I DON'T-I CAN'T- HOW IS THIS EVEN- HOW DID YOU-" he started.

"It worked? What did I say?!" asked Sniffles eagerly.

"I heard what you said! I heard what you said!" exclaimed Nutty, beaming. "This is so amazing, I can't believe it! You said... umm... something about making your family proud!"

Sniffles gasped. "YES! That _was_ what I was thinking! The Telepathy Helmet works! Whoo hoo!" Sniffles shot his fists up in the air triumphantly. He swiftly stepped over to Nutty and took the helmet from him and placed it onto his own head.

"This is so cool, ha ha! Now... think of something! Anything!"

Nutty scratched his head. "Hmm, let's see, uh... okay! I've got something!" He had his arms bent, with fists of anticipation formed.

Sniffles's eyes pointed upward. He _did_ look like he was listening to something. Something only he could hear.

The anteater rolled his eyes, and he chuckled. "Churros. You're thinking about churros," he said, smiling.

"Yup!" affirmed Nutty. "Gosh, Sniffles! You're like the smartest guy ever! That," Nutty pointed at the helmet. "is the greatest thing you've ever built, my friend. Your family will be very proud."

Sniffles smiled warmly and looked upward, thinking about his family of anteaters. He felt happy. "Yeah... I bet they will be," he said.

Nutty looked upward too and spotted another white fluffy cloud. He gasped.

"Oh! Sniffles, can you help me find Lammy? She just ran off somewhere, chasing 'Mr. Pickles,'" Nutty told Sniffles, making manual quotation marks when he said "Mr. Pickles".

"Sure," said Sniffles. He took a few steps down the sidewalk with Nutty, but he abruptly stopped, letting Nutty walk a few steps ahead of him before noticing.

"What?" asked Nutty.

The anteater said, "Hold on." He turned a knob on the helmet. This caused the antenna to get longer. It grew about five times longer. Sniffles had his eyes pointed forward. His eyes moved left to right as if he was reading. "I hear someone thinking. It sounds like a girl's voice. And she's thinking about a pickle."

"...Lammy!" a wide-eyed Nutty gasped. "Do you know where it's coming from?"

Sniffles's head turned to the right. His eyes were staring across the field, past the playground equipment, and past the people in the park. "That way," stated Sniffles, pointing across the grassy field.

Nutty's head turned in the same direction as Sniffles's head. Then he looked at Sniffles and smiled as he said, "That thing is _really_ helpful. It can even hear thoughts from far away!"

"I know," Sniffles said back.

The squirrel's head turned back to where Sniffles pointed. "Well, let's go!" he said.

He and the anteater started running across the park.


	6. Chapter 6

...

Lammy was in her kitchen. She had placed Mr. Pickels inside of a glass jar. There was no pickle juice in the jar. Just empty space. She sealed the jar with its lid. Mr. Pickels frowned sadly. He layed his tiny hand against the glass from the inside, looking at Lammy. Lammy walked over to the drawer where she kept her dining ware. Her paw withdrew a knife from it. After closing the drawer, the sheep walked back over to the mahogany table where the jar containing Mr. Pickels was. Seeing the knife, Mr. Pickels's eyes widened in fear. Lammy secured the jar with one of her paws. With the other, she used the knife to create a hole on the lid. She pulled up her paw and thrust it down again, creating another hole. Then she made two more holes. There were now four holes on the lid of the jar, with diameters about two centimeters long.

Mr. Pickels used one of his hands to wipe off some non-existent sweat from his head, as if saying, "Phew". Lammy was making holes in the jar lid so that he could breathe. He laid both of his tiny black hands against the jar glass, wearing a sad look. Lammy noticed this sad look, and she started to feel mournful. But then she shook her head and turned her back to Mr. Pickels.

She sighed and said, "You ha-a-ave caused so much trouble toda-a-a-ay. I don't know _what_ go-o-ot into you."

...

The pickle just sat silently inside of the jar, not moving.

...

"Why do you do this? Everywhere I ta-a-a-ake you, you cause trouble," said Lammy, clenching one of her fists. "Trouble for o-o-others, trouble for _me_."

...

The motionless pickle still sat in its place.

...

"You ca-a-aused a ca-a-ar cra-a-ash a-at a school, you ca-a-aused a tree to fa-a-all o-o-on a restra-a-aunt, you ca-a-aused an explosion a-at the movie theater," Lammy recalled. She shut her eyes. "You ma-a-ade a pla-a-ane cra-a-ash a-at the airport, you ma-a-ade a ship sink over a-at the beach, you ca-a-aused a bridge colla-a-apse o-on a highwa-a-ay!" Lammy shook her head. "You even ma-a-ade a ferris wheel bra-a-ake awa-a-ay from its sp-o-ot and roll through the city! Th-a-at is insa-a-a-ane!" Lammy exclaimed. She was getting annoyed by her own bleats. She felt that they were ruining the seriousness.

"And a-a-also, you sta-a-arted a fire a-at the wa-a-ater pa-ark. A FIRE. A-AT THE WA-A-ATER PA-ARK. I don't know_ ho-o-ow_ you did it! Tha-at pla-a-ace is supposed to be wet!" The sheep stomped her right foot when she said "wet". "And you even somehow ca-a-aused a cold to spread a-all over a ho-o-ospital!" continued Lammy.

...

The pickle did nothing.

...

"My question is... why? Why do you do it? It's no-o-o-ot right, a-a-and you know it. You ma-a-a-ake even the sa-a-a-afest pla-a-aces da-a-angerous." Lammy was now clenching both fists. "A-and what's _really_ ba-a-a-ad about it is tha-at you do it o-on_ purpose_! I_ know_ you do!" The sheep turned around to face the fruit. "And _I_ alwa-a-ays get bla-a-amed for it!" she said, putting her paws on her chest, indicating herself. "Do you _like_ getting me in trouble? Do you_ like_ ca-a-ausing me stress? Because of you, I've been ja-a-a-ailed a _bunch_ of times!" She looked at the floor and mumbled weakly, "Tha-at's embarrassing."

...

The sheep looked Mr. Pickels in the eyes.

...

"And no-o-ow look a-at toda-a-ay! You poisoned Giggles and Petunia, my friends, po-o-ossibly killing them. And why did you kno-o-ock do-own Mole? He was just trying to sell ice-cream. A-also, he's BLIND! Kno-o-ocking do-own a blind guy? Tha-at is so low of you!" Lammy scolded with a glare. "And I don't like what you did to Cub. You pro-o-obably ga-a-ave him a ba-ad bruise on his foot. Come o-on! He's just a little boy, a-are you serious?!" she said, her glare strengthening. "And _then,_ I crashed into Lumpy while chasing you. _That_ wasn't funny. He got _ma-a-ad_ at me." Lammy's expression showed misery. "I _ha-a-ate_ the wa-ay it feels when someone's ma-a-ad a-at me. Especially when it's no-ot my fa-a-a-ault. A-also, why did you just suddenly punch Flippy like tha-a-at? He didn't do anything." Lammy's eyes grew in anger. "And... you could ha-a-ave really hurt Nutty... _killed_ him even. Why were you trying to sta-a-ab him? I ha-ad to sto-o-op you. I'm so gla-a-ad he's oka-a-ay," she said with her fists trembling. "I ca-an't sta-a-and the idea of him getting hurt, or killed. I just ca-an't _sta-a-and_ it. It's too horrible to think about. Nutty is _super_ important to me... don't ever try to hurt him again, do you hear me? NOT EVER AGAIN! _Especially_ not him!" The sheep turned her back to the pickle again and told it, "I ho-o-onestly wa-ant to hit you right no-o-ow. I really do. Tha-a-at's iro-o-onic because I stro-ongly dislike violence."

She sighed deeply. Then she said, "See tha-a-at? You're no-ot telling me why you do tha-at stuff. I've a-a-asked you many times before, and you never a-a-a-answer. You've a-a-answered _other_ questions tha-at I've a-a-asked you, but no-ot this one." Lammy glared at the pickle again and shook her head. Then she walked out of the kitchen and took a seat on the sofa in her living room. Another sigh escaped from her mouth. She rested her paws on either side of her on the sofa. After a moment, they were then placed on her laps. She twiddled her thumbs. Her twiddling ceased several seconds later. Her head turned left, and then right. She looked down at her feet. After that, her head tilted upward so that she could see the clock. The short hand pointed to the four. The long one was on the six.

"4:30," the sheep mumbled to herself. Her eyes moved down to the small wooden table in front of her. It had an expensive-looking vase on top of it with a flower design. A real flower, a brick-colored rose, stuck out of the opening of it. To the left of the vase, there rested a white china plate with cookie crumbs. Earlier in the day before leaving for the tea party, Lammy baked herself a small batch of chocolate chip cookies. They were delicious. So she baked another batch, a larger one, so that she could bring it to the tea party. She remembered how Nutty ate a bunch of them over at the park. A warm smile formed on her face. She chuckled before saying to herself, "He sure likes his cookies."

Before she could think any more about Nutty, Lammy heard a knock at the door. It caused her to jump slightly. The sheep stood up and walked over to the door to answer it.

"Don't knock so hard, Nutty," Lammy heard Sniffles say on the other side.

"_Nutty's _here?" whispered Lammy quietly. She dashed to the bathroom. Standing in front of the mirror, she examined her reflection. "Oh, goodness," she said to herself. She dusted all of the dust on her wool coat off and checked to see if she had anything in her teeth. There was a small chocolate chip at the back. After getting rid of it, Lammy was about to walk out of the bathroom, but she halted at the door. She power-walked back over to the mirror and straightened her bow. _Then_ she left the bathroom and answered the front door.

"Hi Sniffles, hi Nutty," greeted Lammy. A happy tone in her voice could be heard when she said Nutty's name.

"Hi Lammy," Sniffles greeted back, removing the Telepathy Helmet from his head.

"Hey... Lammy," said Nutty shyly. The girl of his thoughts now stood in front of him. He noticed how she looked even better in person than in his mind. He also noticed that he was thinking this. He shook his head, feeling that it would clear his mind of it.

"So..." Lammy said after a brief moment of silence. "What do guys wa-a-ant?" she chuckled.

"I c-came-I mean S-sniffles came to-I mean um-we b-both came to uh... sh-show you something," stuttered Nutty.

"Yeah," added Sniffles. "Look what I got," he said in a sing-song voice, holding up the helmet.

Lammy looked at the helmet. "Oh my, is tha-at... is tha-at the Telepa-a-athy Helmet?" she asked, looking shocked.

"YES! I fixed it! It's all better!" said Sniffles happily.

"It looks different," commented Lammy.

"That's what Nutty said! It looks different because I constructed a shield made of steel around it. Therefore, the helmet is unbreakable," explained Sniffles, grinning.

Lammy beamed. "Wow, tha-a-at was clever! Now it won't ma-a-atter if anyone dro-o-ops it, huh?" said Lammy.

"Nope!" answered Sniffles.

Nutty shifted uncomfortably, remembering why he had dropped the helmet the first time.

Sniffles asked, "Mind if we come in?"

Lammy answered, "Yeah!" and stepped to the side to let them walk in.

Sniffles hesitated before stepping inside. "Wait, when you said 'yeah,' did you mean that you DO mind if we come in, or that you DON'T mind if we come in?" asked Sniffles.

"You can come in," affirmed Lammy, giggling.

Nutty felt as if a bunch of warm, fuzzy pin worms were squirming around in his heart when he heard that giggle. Lammy's giggles always made him feel this way.

The three made their way inside. Nutty took a seat on the right half of the sofa. Lammy sat on the left, next to him. Sniffles remained standing. He asked Lammy, "Would you like to try on the helmet so that you could witness its awesomeness?"

"Yea-a-ah! Who would pa-a-ass o-on an o-o-offer like this?" answered Lammy, standing up and walking to Sniffles. The sheep took the helmet from him. Nutty expected Lammy to almost fall with the weight of the helmet, but she held it as easily as one could hold a feather. This made him look down at his arms. He frowned and felt his biceps, wishing that he was stronger.

Lammy placed the helmet onto her head. She gasped when she heard someone speaking in her head. The voice said, _So? Whattya think? Isn't it AAAAAWESOME?._

The sheep beamed. "Holy moly, it works! I a-a-actually read your mind! This is so cool!" she squealed. "You asked me if the helmet was a-a-awesome."

"And is it?" said Sniffles.

"YES!" she said back.

She turned to Nutty.

Nutty looked tense. He trembled in place. His eyes moved all around the room. He was looking for something to focus on so that he wouldn't think about Lammy. He didn't want _her_ hearing those thoughts. _Especially_ not her.

His eyes finally came to a decision. They rested on the clock that Lammy looked at.

_Oh, wow. Check out that clock. It's so... clocky. I love how it has the numbers on it, and the little sticks that point at the numbers... and how it hangs on the wall, oh my goodness, the way it HANGS... on the wall. It's just so... majestic! That's how I like my clocks. MMM! _Nutty's echoing voice said in the sheep's head.

Lammy put on a puzzled face. She slowly removed the helmet. She stared at Nutty.

"Why... are you so interested in my clo-o-ock?" she asked.

"Well, uh.. why_ shouldn't_ I be?" Nutty said to her.

There was a pause. Then, Lammy's puzzled expression vanished. She smiled. Then she burst into a fit of laughter.

"Tha-at... was... so... funny!" laughed the sheep. She held her sides. Whistling sounds were heard because of how hard she was laughing. She knew that she was having a bad day today because of Mr. Pickels, but she couldn't but laugh at Nutty's clock thoughts.

Sniffles was looking at Lammy curiously. "What did you hear?" he inquired.

"I-HA HA HA-heard-HA HA HA-He said tha-at-HA HA-the clo-o-ock was-HA HA!" Lammy tried explaining, but she was laughing too hard.

"Huh?" said Sniffles. He walked over to her and took off the helmet. Then he placed it onto his own head. "Hmm..." he said. "I'll see its recording function works." He pressed a small yellow button on the side of the helmet. Then he twisted a knob. His eyes were focused upward as he turned it. He twisted for a while. But then he finally stopped. His eyes moved left to right in a reading motion. He was smiling and trying not to laugh. When it seemed that he finished hearing the thought, he started laughing too.

"I heard it! HA HA HA!" laughed Sniffles.

"What? Ho-o-ow did you hear it?"

"The helmet can record thoughts. I played it again!" Sniffles explained before snorting.

"Oh, tha-a-at is really neat. HA HA HA!" said Lammy.

"HA HA! Remember how he was all like 'The way it hangs on the wall is so majestic!'?"

'Yea-a-ah! HA HA! And a-at the end he was like, 'MMM!'"

Sniffles and Lammy continued laughing. Nutty grinned. He made _Lammy_ laugh. He felt like this was a huge achievement.

"Ha ha ha, I'm_ dead_." said Sniffles, smiling at Nutty.

Lammy's laughs died out and became chuckles. She bleated to Nutty, "Heh heh. Nutty, you've ma-ade my da-a-a-ay."

Nutty smiled at her. His heart rate increased.

Lammy returned the smile. The two were now gazing warmly at each other. Something interesting about this was that Nutty's lazy eye wasn't facing downward. It stayed up, focusing on Lammy, just like the other one.

Then Sniffles said to Nutty, "You're too funny, Nutty." He chuckled. Then he looked around. He had a curious-looking face on. He remembered how Lammy was thinking about the pickle. "Umm, Lammy, I'm curious. Is there a special place in your house where you keep Mr. Pickels when you're not hanging out with him, or is he always with you or... I don't know. Where is he right now?" asked Sniffles.

The sheep frowned. "Oh, I put him in a ja-a-ar in the kitchen so tha-a-at he could think abo-o-out what he's done toda-a-a-ay," she replied.

Sniffles looked puzzled. "...What _did_ he do today?" he inquired.


	7. Chapter 7

The trio sat down on Lammy's sofa. Lammy scooted to the middle, so that Sniffles could sit on the left half of the sofa. This also brought her closer to Nutty, who sat on the right half. Nutty's cheeks heated up when he saw that Lammy was now almost touching him. Lammy told Sniffles all about the terrible things that happened at the park, and how it was all Mr. Pickels's fault. Nutty leaned on his right paw, with his right elbow resting on the sofa's right arm. He rolled his eyes whenever he heard "Mr. Pickels" in the story.

"And then he go-o-ot to the other side of the road and sta-a-a-arted running again. I was super tired, but I ha-ad to keep cha-a-asing him. He was kinda fa-a-a-ar ahead of me while we were running. But I ca-a-ame up with an idea. One tha-at would stop him. I found a ro-o-o-ock on the gro-o-ound and picked it up while I was running. It was this big, see?" explained Lammy, using her paws to create a manual circle that showed how big the rock was. "And ya know what I did with it? I threw it a-a-at him. I ha-a-ad to throw ha-a-ard so tha-at it would get to him. And I ha-ad to be pretty precise too. And guess what? I GO-O-O-O-OT him. I kno-o-o-cked him do-own! It was a miracle! And so he fell to the gro-o-ound, no-ot running anymore. Then I picked him up and bro-o-ought him to this ho-o-ouse, and no-o-ow he is in _tha-at_ ja-a-ar in the kitchen." Lammy sighed. "I am SO gla-a-ad I ca-a-aught him."

Nutty felt glad that the nonsense story was over. It was all just a load of bull... poopy to him. He giggled to himself at the word "poopy" as he thought this.

Lammy and Sniffles both turned to him, wondering why he was giggling. Nutty noticed them. So he cleared his throat and sat up straight. Then he lied, "I'm just so happy for you, Lammy."

Lammy smiled at him before turning back to Sniffles. "It's just so ha-a-ard to believe tha-at a little pickle like him could do such things," she said.

Sniffles nodded in agreement. The truth was, that he didn't REALLY believe that Mr. Pickels did any of that. He didn't REALLY believe that Mr. Pickels existed. But whenever Lammy talked to him about Mr. Pickels, or acted like Mr. Pickels was around, Sniffles would just play along, just like Giggles and Petunia would.

The sheep sighed, "Yup." Then she turned to the squirrel. She studied him. He was staring into space, with his non-lazy eye on the wall. She wanted to know what he was thinking about.

"That is one sinister pickle," Sniffles said.

Lammy looked to the ground. Then she said, "I think I'll go check o-o-on him." After saying that, she walked out of the living room and into the kitchen.

Then Sniffles stared into space along with Nutty. As the anteater did this, his paw reached up to his helmet. Sniffles was absently fidgeting around with the record knob on his helmet. He turned it all the way counterclockwise. When it couldn't go any further, he turned it all the way clockwise so that it was set on listening to current thoughts instead of replaying past thoughts. After he did this, he heard a voice in his head. It was rather deep, and it cracked a little.

Sniffles came back to Earth. He realized that it was Nutty's voice.

_Why am I like this? Why do I keep thinking about her? She's just a really good friend of mine, I don't know why I do. When she and I first met, I felt completely normal around her. But.. then, some time passed, and... I started to feel less and less normal with her every time we met, _the echoing voice said.

Sniffles's eyes grew.

_I feel so weird. Especially when she gets close to me. And when she laughs... when she laughs, it feels like someone just decided to cut open my chest and pour a huge jar full of fuzzy caterpillars into it so that they could squirm their way into my heart to form those little sleeping bags they get into so they could turn into butterflies and fly right into my stomach, _the voice continued.

Sniffles slowly turned his head to Nutty.

_She makes me feel all... happy and warm. I remember feeling like this with some lovely lollipops and gumballs and chocolates and cookies and cupcakes and candy apples. But... for some reason, she takes my mind off all that stuff. She also makes my heart pump faster. Those eyes of hers... they're so mesmuhmerizing. And that bow on her head... it looks great on her. No one can wear it the way she can. If any other girl tried to wear it as good as her, she should just go sit in the corner of shame for trying. Whenever I look at a cloud, she appears back in my mind. Well I guess it's because clouds are fluffy, and her coat is fluffy... I bet it would be really nice to hug her. Wait, what? Why do I wanna hug her so bad? This is weird... hmm... I wonder what Lammy thinks of ME? I doubt she has the same weird feelings, _added the voice_._

Sniffles removed the Telepathy Helmet just as slowly as he had turned his head. The helmet now sat on his laps.

He couldn't believe what he had just heard. He wasn't expecting to hear_ those_ kinds of thoughts. Not from Nutty. Was that really him? Well, yes, it had to be. It sounded exactly like him, and it mentioned sugary treats, so it was indeed Nutty's voice. The anteater stared at Nutty. Nutty had no idea that anyone was listening_ that_. The squirrel sensed that the anteater was looking at him. He looked back and raised his head from his paw.

"What?" he asked.

Sniffles didn't answer.

The anteater sat in silence, completely shocked at his friend. Lammy walked back into the room. "He's still in there. I tho-o-ought he might be trying to esca-a-ape someho-o-ow," she told them. Then she took a seat. Not on the sofa that Nutty and Sniffles were on, but on a chair near the table with the vase and the plate with the cookie crumbs.

"So," she began. "what do you guys wanna do?"

Sniffles's eyes were on her when she walked in, and they stayed on her until she asked that question. He looked at Nutty. And then at Lammy again. His eyes darted from him to her to him to her to him to her. He felt awkward. But nonetheless, he spoke up, to Nutty.

"Hey, um... Nutty...? Can I... talk to you for a bit? Outside?" he asked.

Nutty glanced to Lammy, and then at Sniffles again.

"Umm... sure. Okay," Nutty replied, wondering what the anteater wanted to talk to him about. He stood up and walked with Sniffles to the door as Lammy watched them. She too, was curious.

Nutty's head kept turning back to her as he walked to the front door with Sniffles.

"Excuse us for a bit, Lammy," Sniffles told the sheep.

"Er... oka-a-ay," she bleated.

"Thanks," he said back.

The squirrel and the anteater both stepped outside. Sniffles closed the door.

He and Nutty stood in silence for a brief moment before Nutty asked, "So, uhh... what's goin' on?"

Sniffles said to him slowly after a short pause, "Nutty, do you know exactly how you feel about... Lammy?"

Nutty tensed up at this question. _Why_ was he asking him that? "Wh-why are you asking me that?" he asked.

Sniffles answered, still slowly, "Because... I know that you feel less normal with her than you did in the past."

Nutty jumped. How did Sniffles know this? "Wh-what do you mean?" he said, fidgeting with the digits of his trembling paws.

"I mean... you get weird feelings when you're with her."

"Uhh... what m-makes you say that?"

"...When she laughs, you feel like someone had cut open your chest" (Nutty's eyes gradually grew as he said this.) "and poured a huge jar full of fuzzy caterpillars into it so that they would squirm into your heart to form cocoons, turn into butterflies, and fly into your stomach," recited Sniffles.

Nutty stared at him in surprise. "You-you don't kn-know what you're talking about! Stop it!" he pouted.

Sniffles continued, "You feel... happy and warm with her," (Nutty's jaw gradually dropped as he said this.) "just like you used to feel with some _lovely _lollipops, gumballs, chocolates, cookies, cupcakes, candy apples, etcetera... but she takes your mind off of all that."

"Stop it! Shut up!" shouted the bewildered squirrel.

"And I gotta agree with you on that coat of hers. It is..."

"I said stop it!"

"indeed..."

"Stop talking!"

"quite fluffy."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!" yelled Nutty, his with his voice higher pitched. "HOW DO YOU KNOW ALL OF THIS?!" he demanded, feeling a mixture of anger, confusion, and embarrassment. "Are you some kind of freakish sidekick?!"

"That's 'psychic', Nutty," corrected Sniffles, holding his pointer digit up in a matter-of-fact manner. "And no, I am not a freakish psychic, I am a brilliant genius. Oh, and I was listening to your thoughts with the Telepathy Helmet."

"YOU LIAR-oh," said Nutty, looking down. He had his pointer digit at Sniffles, but it quickly drooped down. He now understood how Sniffles knew.

Sniffles laughed. "You like Lammy!" he shot at Nutty.

Nutty suddenly calmed down. Then he said to Sniffles, "What...? Um..." Nutty tilted his head. "Well... er-of course I do. She's my friend... isn't she? I mean, I'm SUPPOSED to like her. Why would I be friends with her if I didn't like her?"

"No, dummy!" said Sniffles. "I meant 'like like'. You 'like like' Lammy. In other words, you have a _crush_ on her!"

Nutty gasped, and his fists clenched. He retorted, "That's ridi-that is not tru-NO I DON'T!"

"Yes you do," said Sniffles in a purposely babyish voice.

"No I _don't... _do I...?" said Nutty, uncertain.

"Yes, you _do! _How could you not know that?!" Sniffles said back.

"...I-I don-I don't know!" shouted Nutty. "It's just all so... new to me. I mean, I've 'like-liked' candy, but not never a... girl!"

"Buddy, those 'crushes' that you had, weren't _real_ crushes. But the one that you have on Lammy_ is_! Because you have an actual _crush_, on an actual_ girl_!"

Nutty laid a paw on his forehead. He looked at the ground as he turned away from Sniffles, and took a few steps away from him. He felt as if his head was spinning. He finally realized his feelings for Lammy. And he had to have Sniffles help him do that. He felt like the moron of the year.

"Wow, I... can't believe it," he whispered, walking back to Sniffles. "...I DO like her. A_ lot_. I actually have a crush on Lammy!" he admitted.

Sniffles laughed. He sung teasingly, "You've got the hots for Lammy! You've got the hots for Lammy!" He danced, going around Nutty in circles.

Nutty kicked at the ground and crossed his arms as Sniffles kept singing and dancing around him, teasing him. He faced downward with his eyes squeezed shut, his cheeks flushing scarlet. "Shut up," he grumbled.

"Aw, it's okay, dude! It's all right if you like Lammy. She's kind of a catch, and she's really nice. I think you should tell her," advised Sniffles, ceasing the singing and dancing. He now stood in front of Nutty, facing him.

Nutty's eyes shot open. He looked up at Sniffles. "What? _Tell_ her? Sniffles, I can't tell her that I like her! 'Cause what if she doesn't like _me_? And I mean 'like like'," he said back.

"Well, if she doesn't, at least she's not going to be a jerk about it. She would definitely let you off really easy," Sniffles told him.

This idea brought a sad frown to Nutty's face.

"But," Sniffles went on, "what if she _does_ like you? She_ might_! You gotta take a chance, Nutty. Just like I do when I'm doing chemistry experiments. Ya never know 'til you try," Sniffles said.

Nutty's frown vanished and was replaced with a smile. The idea of Lammy liking him back was just so uplifting.

"Ya know... maybe you're right. Maybe I _should_ tell her. She could feel the same way!" said the squirrel, looking hopeful.

"That's the spirit!" exclaimed the light blue anteater. "You're thinking like an optimist, my friend. That's a good thing. So... when _are_ you going to tell her?"

Nutty put his paw on his chin and rolled his good eye up. "...I... really don't know..." he replied, unsurely.

Sniffles spoke to him, "Well, that's okay for now. But I'm just telling you. You've _gotta_ tell her _sometime. _Because what if she suddenly moves away, or meets another guy, or dies before you even confess? Now THAT would stink."

Nutty screwed up his face. None of those ideas appealed to him. Of course he didn't want Lammy to move away. That would sadden him. And of course he didn't want her with another guy. That would both sadden and anger him. And he_ definitely _didn't want her to_ die. _He hated that thought.

"Well, with that being said, let's head back inside. We don't wanna keep Lammy waiting any longer for us," said the anteater. He and Nutty opened Lammy's front door and proceeded back into her house, to the living room where she waited.


	8. Chapter 8

The squirrel and the anteater retook their seats on the sheep's living room sofa. The Telepathy Helmet was left in the middle of it. Sniffles sat down on the left part of the sofa, picked up the helmet, and placed it on his laps again. He gently tapped his paw digits on it, maybe to the beat of a song. Nutty sat down on the right half of the sofa, next to Sniffles, and he twiddled his thumbs, looking around the room.

Lammy eyed them. She asked, "Umm, do you mind if I a-a-a-ask what you were ta-a-alking abo-o-out, or was it a private thing?"

"It was private," Nutty answered quickly.

"Oh," said Lammy.

Sniffles looked at Nutty and gave a smug smile. He chuckled.

"What's so funny?" asked the sheep.

The anteater rolled his eyes and said, "Nothing."

Lammy frowned. Her eyes jumped from Sniffles to Nutty, and them him again. A glare formed on her face.

"What?" said Nutty, seeing that she looked bothered.

"...Were you... ta-a-alking abo-out me? Behind my ba-a-a-ack?" she asked, still glaring.

"No, we were talking about you on your front porch outside," said Nutty, smiling. Sometimes, he didn't understand phrases.

Sniffles sharply turned his head to Nutty, giving him an "Are you serious?" look. Lammy's glare worsened.

"You _were? _Tha-a-at's why you went o-o-outside? To ta-alk abo-o-ot me? What did you two sa-a-ay?!" she asked angrily.

Nutty was puzzled; he didn't know why she was angry, but it scared him. "We were just talking about how I-" began Nutty, but then he quickly stopped himself with a gasp, seeing that he was about to tell Lammy his secret about her. He covered his mouth with his right paw.

"How you... what?" said Lammy.

Nutty stuttered, "How I-I-um-we were... talking about... how I-"

"Think that you really know how to furnish a room well," Sniffles finished for Nutty. "Look at your living room. It's very nice."

Lammy looked around her living room, with her glare gone. Then she looked back at Sniffles.

Nutty added, "Uhh...yeah! This room is... VERY nice." He placed his head on the right arm of the sofa and lightly rubbed it with his paw, as if feeling how soft it was. "I mean, look at this couch-"

"Sofa," corrected Sniffles quickly.

"Yeah, this _sofa_. It's SO comfy. I could sleep on it. It's VERY easy on butts." He forced a giggle.

Now Lammy was smiling. She chuckled and said to Nutty, "Do you like it better than the clo-o-ock?"

Nutty lifted his head from the sofa's arm and chuckled back. "Mmm, maybe," he said.

Lammy giggled. Then she turned back to Sniffles and asked, "So, th-aat's a-a-a-a-all you were ta-alking abo-o-out?"

"No, we wouldn't just go outside for _that_. We were talking about private stuff too... like, you know... we were... you know what? Let's just forget about this. Remember how you asked, 'So... what do you guys wa-a-anna do?'" said Sniffles, imitating Lammy's voice, and doing it quite well. He even got the bleating right.

Lammy's eyes widened a little at Sniffles's impressive imitation of her. She replied, "Yes."

"Well, I have decided. Why don't we all go to the library? I hear that they've got some new, interesting physics books! And they've got fun facts in them too! Hmm?" suggested Sniffles.

"The library? Oh, um, that... that sounds great, Snif, but I'm not really in the library mood right now," said Nutty. "I'm more in the... diner kind. Today's Friday, and on Fridays, they give ice-cream cakes for free! Mmmmm... ice-cream, cake... I wonder who came up with combining them. He's a genius!"

"Ha ha, yea-a-ah," Lammy giggled to Nutty, who felt the "caterpillars". She put her paw on her chin and looked up at the ceiling and made another suggestion. "Hmm..." She removed her paw from her chin and made a small gasp. "I know! The ma-a-all! Oh, they've go-ot the cutest earrings over there!" She made another small gasp. "And the necklaces! They're so pret-" she stopped herself. She looked at the boys. "Oh, nevermind... you guys are... guys. You wouldn't wa-a-ant tha-at stuff." She laughed. "Tha-a-at would be weird!"

Nutty and Sniffles laughed too. "Ha ha ha, yeah. _Really_ weird," agreed Sniffles. He looked at Nutty. He tilted his head. "Actually... I think Nutty would look FABULOUS in earrings," he joked.

Nutty rolled his eyes. "Nah. You know what, Sniffles? You would look GORGEOUS in a necklace. Why don't you go get one?" he joked back.

The three laughed.

"Heh heh heh, anyway... where _should_ we go?" asked Sniffles.

The trio all took several seconds to ponder. Finally, Nutty made one more suggestion. "The bowling alley?" he tried.

The other two looked at him. They grinned.

"Yeah!" said Sniffles.

"Ooh! I like the bowling a-a-a-a-alley. Let's go there!" agreed Lammy.

"All right," said Sniffles.

"Great!" said Nutty.

They all now had a decision. So the trio all got up from their seats and headed out the front door. Sniffles was the first to step out. Nutty was going to be the second, but he stopped and looked back at Lammy. He stepped to the side and made a gesture with his paws that meant "You can go ahead."

"Ladies first," he said to her.

Lammy beamed at him. "Why, tha-a-ank you," she replied. The sheep walked ahead of him, out the door. Nutty gladly walked out after. Then he closed the door and locked it for her. Lammy took a few steps, away from the door, and she paused. She twisted her upper body and turned her head so that she see the house behind her. She frowned. This is because she remembered who was sitting in a jar, all alone, in her kitchen, in her house. She shook her head, went back to facing forward. "He'll be fine," Lammy convinced herself quietly, looking down. "Everyone else will be fine too. He can't escape from that jar. Everything will be all right."

Nutty's sharp ears heard this. He looked back at her. He knew that she was talking about Mr. Pickels. He sighed and rolled his eyes, waiting for her to catch up to him and Sniffles.

But Lammy lingered behind. After a moment of not moving, she called to them, "Um, guys? Can you you hold on for a little? I'll be right back."

"Sure," Sniffles called back. "What did you forget?"

"Er... uh, money! I forgot to bring money. 'Cause, you know, we need it for the balls and shoes and stuff... over there?" explained Lammy.

"Oh," said Sniffles. "Okay. Hurry!"

"Wait, Lammy! I already got some!" called Nutty.

"Yea-a-ah, for _you!_ I'll be right ba-a-ack," she called back.

Lammy rushed to her front door. She bent down and lifted the mat in front of it. From under the mat, she pulled out a bronze-colored key. With the key, Lammy opened the door. She ran inside.

Nutty and Sniffles waited for about a minute. Then they saw Lammy exit her house through the front door. The door was then closed and locked. Lammy put her key back under the mat. Truffles, a grey-blue pig in a sailor outfit, had his head partially poking out from behind Lammy's house. "All right, let's go!" said the sheep as she ran up to them at the sidewalk in front of her house. When she caught up to them, Nutty and Sniffles could see that the right pocket of her wool coat had something in it. Sniffles assumed that it was cash. But Nutty asked Lammy, "What's in there?" He pointed at her pocket.

"Money," she answered him, avoiding his eyes.

"Oh, yeah. Okay," said Nutty, nodding. He turned on his heel, but took no steps. He turned back to Lammy again and told her, "But um, Lammy? Ya know... I would have paid for your stuff over there at the bowling alley."

Lammy smiled at him shyly and said, "Aw, but I don't want you to have to pay for me."

"I wouldn't mind."

"Yeah... but still. I wouldn't... ha-a-ave you... do tha-at. Besides, I go-o-ot my own ca-a-ash right no-ow anywa-a-ay, see?" Lammy pat her loaded pocket with her paw.

Sniffles was fifteen fit ahead of them. He said to them, "Hey, are you guys coming or not?"

Nutty and Lammy jumped.

Lammy called to the anteater, "Yea-a-ah, we're coming! Hold o-o-on!" Then she grabbed Nutty's left paw with her right and rushed over to Sniffles with him.

Nutty silently gasped when Lammy grabbed his paw. A blush was now visible on his light green face. As soon as they reached Sniffles, she let released his paw. Now the trio walked in a row, with Lammy in the middle. Nutty was on her right, and Sniffles was on her left. Nutty was absently walking with them. He held up his left paw to himself, looking at it. He loosely grasped it with his other, thinking about how the girl that he had a crush on was just holding it.

* * *

Two kleptomaniac raccoons were digging around in the back of their loaded truck, behind a hamburger restraunt, picking up the items that they stole during that day, admiring them. Of course, the truck that they had was also stolen, years ago.

"Hee hee hee hee hee. Would you look at this lamp? Look at it! It's so expensive-looking," snickered Lifty, holding a silver lamp with peach trees painted on it. It had a white shade.

"Heh heh heh, yeah! And this pocket watch! Check it out! It looks so old! Antiques are worth a lot, ya know," snickered Shifty, holding a golden pocket watch with a long chain.

"WHOOOOWEE! Shifty! Shifty, look! This mirror! It's so priceless!" said Lifty, now holding a mirror with a mahogany frame, decorated with rubies. The back of it was plated in osmium.

"Whoa, you're right!" agreed Shifty. He bent down to pick up a silver necklace with a heart-shaped diamond on it. "Oh, lordy. Lifty! Feast your eyes on this little beauty!"

"Ooooooooh. It's so shiny. I wonder how much it's worth!"

"I'll tell you how much it's worth!"

"How much?"

"A_ lot_!"

The twins snickered together.

"Oh boy, I tell ya," said Shifty. "THIS necklace was probably the easiest to get out of everything here."

Lifty looked upward, thinking. He replied, "Actually... no. The EASIEST thing we stole has gotta be that huge ice-cream that we got from that green squirrel guy at the park earlier."

"Ya mean the one that _I_ stole?"

"...Yeah..."

"Hmm... oh yeah, you're right," agreed Shifty. "That_ was_ the easiest. He just stood there holding up the ice-cream like a dope! Hee hee hee! He didn't do anything to get it back. Did he even know that we took it?"

"I don't know," replied Lifty. "I think he was daydreaming or somethin'."

"Yeah... anyway, we're gonna get so rich! So filthy, stinkin', disgustingly rich! We're... oh, wait. _You're_ just gonna be rich._ You've _already got the filthy, stinkin', disgusting part down."

Lifty's eyes hung down half-way in annoyance. "Oh, shut up, you," he said. He looked around. "Hmm, should we keep lootin', or do we call it a day?"

"Let's keep lootin'!" answered Shifty. "I ain't done yet!"

* * *

Nutty, Lammy, and Sniffles were only steps away from the entrance of the bowling alley. Right when Nutty was about to open the door for the other two, Sniffles said something.

"So, who's going first?" he asked.

Nutty looked to Lammy. He shrugged and said to her, "Ladies first?"

Lammy smiled. "Oh, no, tha-at's oka-a-ay. You can go first," she replied.

"What about you, Snif? Antbiters-I mean antchewers-I mean... er... what are you again?" asked Nutty.

Sniffles rolled his eyes and told him, "An anteater."

"Right! Um, antsuckers first?"

Sniffles sighed and said, "Sure. All right. Who's going next?"

"...I... think tha-at Nutty will go next," Lammy said, pointing to Nutty.

"Are you sure? 'Cause if you wanna go second, I'll let you," Nutty told her.

"No, no. YOU can go second," she said.

"Nah... YOU can go second," he said.

"No, YOU can go second," she said.

"No, YOU," he said.

"No, YOU," she said.

"YOU," he said, pointing at her.

"YOU," she said, pointing at him.

"You! I'll even let you go third too!"

"Nutty, just go second."

"No! You can go second AND third! And... uh... what comes after third?"

"Fourth."

"Yeah, you can be the FOURTH player too!"

"... There a-are only three of us."

"Go next."

"No, YOU go... wait... you_ really _don't wanna pla-a-ay, do you?"

"Actually, I do. I'll go fifth."

"Nutty-what?! Fifth?! Now you're just being silly. Look, I insist that you go second."

"You do it."

"Just-"

"WHEN WILL THIS END?!" yelled Sniffles, throwing his arms up in the air dramatically. "Just flip a coin or something!" He walked over to Nutty, pulled out the squirrel's paw, and slapped a coin onto it rather hard. "HERE," he told him.

"Ow," said Nutty.

Sniffles left a special Splendid token on it. "One of you will pick heads, and the other will pick tails," Sniffles explained. "You are going to toss it up, and you will watch it land on the ground. Whoever's claimed side it lands on, gets to be second. Now, decide who gets Splendid's head and who gets Splendid's tail."

Nutty turned to Lammy. He told her, "Lammy, you can get heads if you want."

"No, you can get heads," she said back.

"No you can," he said.

"No, you," she said.

"You."

"You."

"That's it!" shouted Sniffles. He said to them with clenched teeth, "Nutty is getting HEADS, and Lammy is getting TAILS. All right, let's go. Toss it!"

Nutty tossed up the coin.


	9. Chapter 9

Nutty tossed up the token a bit too high. It traveled vertically, up into the air until it was two stories high. When it reached that height, it slowed down in the air. Then it began falling, returning to the ground. Nutty held out his paw to catch it, but he missed.

The token hit the ground with a _ching _sound. It bounced up about five feet. Then it bounced a second time, this time ending up two feet up. After the third, it bounced up about three inches. The Splendid token bounced lower and lower, and also away from Nutty, Lammy, and Sniffles. It bounced away from the bowling alley, and past the pizza parlor, going north.

"My token!" exclaimed a worried Sniffles. He started running after it, but Lammy motioned for him to stop.

"I'll get it," she told him. So she took off, sprinting for the token, which was now rolling.

"No, Lammy! Let me get it! I'm the one who tossed it!" called Nutty, who was just starting to run too.

"Too la-a-ate! I'm a-already running a-a-after it. I'll be right ba-a-ack," Lammy called back.

So Nutty stopped and watched her go. After a few seconds, he looked at Sniffles. Sniffles had his eyelids half-way down.

"She better get it back," said the anteater, "or you owe me a new Splendid token."

Nutty gave a nervous chuckle.

The anteater shook his head. "Come on. Let's go inside and order all the stuff we need to play with and to set up our score charts. She'll find us in here when she gets back," Sniffles said.

He proceeded through the bowling alley's entrance.

Nutty remained outside for a little bit. He looked at Lammy, who was now about eight buildings away. Then he opened the entrance door and walked in.

* * *

Lammy ran after the rolling Splendid token. This token wasn't as hard to catch up to as Mr. Pickels. She ended up passing the coffee shop, the party store,and the mini movie theater. A few other buildings were passed too. Lammy ended up ten buildings away from the bowling alley. The token now rolled to the left, and it rolled up a small, ramp-like part of the sidewalk, which was meant for bikers or handicaps to wheel up on. The token was now rolling in an alley. A dim, filthy alley with a rough pavement. It was poorly lit by the lamp post near Lammy, which shone weakly. Lammy froze before walking into the alley. She covered her mouth with her lavender paws.

The Splendid token now slowed down. It rolled around in a small circle, counterclockwise. When it was done making the circle, it stood on its edge for a few seconds. Finally, it dropped down flat, in the middle of the alley.

Lammy just stood there, at the mouth of the alley. She scanned her eyes up and down it. The alley was long and narrow. Should she go in there? It was quiet, too quiet. The sheep thought about just leaving and going back with Nutty and Sniffles at the bowling alley. It wasn't too far back. So she removed her paws from her mouth and took a few steps back south where that building was, but then she stopped.

"No," she whispered to herself. "What am I thinking? I ca-a-an't go ba-a-ack to Sniffles witho-o-out the token. He seemed really worried abo-o-out it." She took a deep breath. "Oka-a-ay. Just wa-alk in, into this da-a-ark, creepy a-alley, get the coin, wa-alk o-o-out, and head ba-a-ack with the others. You know what? Don't walk. _Run. _Yea-a-ah, do a-a-all tha-at, but run, don't wa-alk," Lammy told herself. So she straightened up.

She whimpered in gibberish as she ran to the Splendid token, bent over, picked it up, bent back up, and scurried on her way out of the alley.

But then she bumped into something. She fell back after the bump, landing on her bottom. "Oof!" she uttered. The token was released from her grasp, and it fell next to her, bouncing a few times before landing. She shook her head and looked up to see what she had bumped into.

This "something" that Lammy had bumped into turned out to be a some_one. _Lammy gasped.

This someone wore a long dark purple coat with a very high collar, one that covered his mouth. He also wore dark purple shades that completely obscured his eyes. His fur was a purplish pinkish color. Right next to his nose, there was a mole.

It was the Mole.

Lammy removed her paws from her mouth and sighed out of relief. "Oh," she said. "It's only you, Mole. I tho-o-ought you were some creepy kidna-a-apper guy a-at first. Heh heh." Lammy picked up the token next to her and stood up. The Mole seemed to have his eyes focused on her, even though he couldn't see.

Lammy chuckled nervously. "So, um... heh heh... ho-o-ow a-are you, M-Mole?"

The Mole had his paws behind his back. He didn't answer.

"Oh, yea-a-ah, I forgo-o-ot. You don't ta-a-a-alk much, huh? Or... do you... a-at a-all...?" asked Lammy, holding one paw with the other in front of her, looking slightly embarrassed.

The Mole still didn't respond.

"No...? Hmm. Well, I understa-a-and tha-at you ca-an't see, but tha-at doesn't mean you ca-an't ta-a-alk either... does it?

The Mole just stood there, keeping his paws behind his back, facing her.

Lammy looked left and right, and back at the Mole.

"Um, were you o-on your wa-a-a-ay to the bowling a-a-alley too?" she asked, expecting him to nod or shake his head for an answer.

But his head neither nodded "yes"... or shook "no".

"Oh," said Lammy. "I see."

Now Lammy felt awkward. Well, she already felt awkward, but now she felt even more awkward. The weak street lamp's light reflected off of the Mole's dark, circular glasses. Lammy eyed the mouth of the alley, which would be her exit. She sighed.

"Well," she said. "This was an interesting co-onversa-a-ation we've ha-a-ad, but um, I think I'll be o-on my wa-ay no-o-ow. Buh bye." Lammy waved. She didn't need to wave; the Mole wouldn't know that she did. The sheep began to walk around the Mole, past his left side.

He swiftly, and suddenly, stepped to his left, in front of her. Lammy flinched and froze.

"Uh-excuse me... Mole," she said to him. "You're in my wa-a-ay."

She tried walking around his right side, but then he stepped to his right, in front of her again.

"Huh?" whispered Lammy.

She tried stepping past the Mole's left again. He blocked her. Then she tried his right again. He blocked her... again. She tried several more times to get past the Mole, but every time she did, he would step in front of her.

It seemed that he didn't want her to leave... was this the case?

Lammy stood on her spot and pondered. Her eyes squinted, and then her face lightened up with an idea.

She put her paws behind her back like him, and took moderate, steady steps to her right, which was the Mole's left. When she and he reached the wall of the alley, Lammy quickly sprinted to her left, trying to get around the Mole.

This little plan failed. The Mole moved to his right as quickly as Lammy did to her left. He blocked her once again. He seemed to be expecting that tactic.

Lammy was now glaring. "Mole!" she shouted. "Let me pa-a-a-ass!"

But the Mole wouldn't step aside for her. Finally, he responded, with a shake of his head, which meant "No".

Lammy gasped in surprise. "W-what? 'No'?" she stuttered.

The Mole nodded, confirming that he did shake his head. Remarkably, the Mole was somehow able to sense where Lammy was so that he could block her.

The sheep was silent for a moment. "You're-what are you-what is thi-... huh?" She was confused. "W-w-why no-o-ot?"

Suddenly, the Mole quickly pulled his left paw from behind his back. His paw held a newspaper. He stretched his left arm forward so that Lammy could see the front page of it.

Lammy looked at the newspaper. She tentatively took it from him. The Mole replaced his left paw behind his back.

She grasped the newspaper with both paws and peered at its front page. The main heading read,

_Dangerous Sheep Girl Goes Berserk._

She read the subtitle. It said,

_There was no escape from the fleece of fury. _

The front page also had a photograph. It was of her, and she was chasing someone with a crowbar, with this menacing look on her face. The person who she was chasing was a white and brown ferret. The ferret was white on his head, belly, and about half the length of his tail. He was brown around his eyes, on his limbs, and the other half of his tail at the end of it. The ferret looked extremely scared.

"W-what?" said a puzzled Lammy. "Is tha-at..." She gasped. "Tha-at ca-a-an't be me!" She looked back up at the Mole. He walked over to her, with his right paw remaining on his back. With his left, he lifted a corner of the front page and lightly shook it. He was telling her to open the newspaper to look inside. When she did so, he must have heard her do it. So he stepped back.

Lammy opened up the newspaper. She looked around on the first two long pages. All she saw was three stories about a tornado, a football game, and a new store being built. A few advertisements were in there too.

"You wa-a-ant me to read these?" asked Lammy.

The Mole shook his head. He held out his left paw in front of him and made a manual page-flipping motion.

Understanding, Lammy turned the page. She looked up at the Mole again. He made another flipping motion. So Lammy turned another page.

Her heart skipped a beat. There were several photos of Lammy doing something horrible like breaking people's windows, poisoning a water supply, and cutting a tree down a tree with an ax so that it could fall onto a building. Another showed Lammy about to strike that ferret on the head with a crowbar. One more showed a whole city with many explosions occurring in it. In between the photos, there were paragraphs of a long article printed, which took up the two pages she looked at.

She remembered that city she visited. And she remembered being in all of the places in that city that were in the photos. But she didn't remember ever doing any of the despicable things in them.

"What is thi-ho-o-ow... ho-o-ow is this... I don't under-WHAT?!" cried Lammy. She stared at the pictures. Her eyes jumped from one picture to the next. "No..." she said. "No... NO! This doesn't make any sense! I never did any of these things! I would never do any of it. Never! Tha-a-at isn't- it _ca-a-an't_ be me!" She whimpered, "Oh, my, what is ha-a-appening here? Why am I in these pictures? How could any of this ever ha-a-appen? How?!" She dropped the newspaper to the ground. It floated down softly to the pavement.

Lammy gripped the place where her heart was. She was panting. Why the heck was she in those pictures? Why was she doing those things? Was that really her? She remembered Mr. Pickels doing all of all that, but she could never imagine herself going insane like in those pictures.

No, she really couldn't imagine. She _wouldn't_ imagine either. It was just too hard to believe.

The sheep shook her head, feeling scared. She took a few steps back from the Mole. The Mole remained standing on his spot. Then, he reached into a pocket on the left side of his high-collared coat with his left paw. It was a note.

He walked to Lammy and handed her the note. Shaking, Lammy took it, and he stepped back again, returning his left paw to his back.

Lammy opened up the folded note. It was a wide-rule lined sheet. In big letters written in blue marker ink, the note read,

_ I don't like what you did to me at the park. Kicking someone down without a reason is not a very nice thing to do. You've got some nerve, Missy. And I must say, you've got quite a kick too, but don't feel proud of yourself. If you had kicked my ankle any harder, it could have been broken. In case you're unaware, I am quite angry with you._

The sheep was shocked. "_What?! _But-but... I di-I didn't kick your ankle! Mr. Pickels did! _He's_ the one you should be angry with!"

The Mole put his left paw on his forehead and shook his head. He reached into his other pocket, pulled out another note, and gave it to Lammy, who took it with a glare. She opened it up. In the same blue marker, it read,

_I knew you would say that. I've heard about this pickle of yours. About how IT is the one who keeps hurting others. That's rich. How is that supposed to fool anyone? _

Lammy's glare was gone, and it was now replaced with a face of dumbfoundedness.

She stuttered, "H-ho-o-ow did you even write these? You're blind!"

The Mole waved her off, as if it wasn't worth talking about. Then he reached into his left pocket again, searching deep. His paw withdrew one more note. It was smaller than the others, and it was in piece of white paper with no line. Unlike the other notes, this one was written in _red_ marker. It said,

_You're under arrest for trespassing of private property, auto theft, arson, city damage, physical abuse, murder attempt, homicide, and disturbing the peace. I didn't want to have to do this, but I must. _

Now Lammy was confused, but also alarmed. Her grip on the Splendid token in her left paw tightened. She whispered, "I'm... u-under... ar-arrest?"

The Mole nodded. He reached into his right pocket again and pulled something else out, and he showed it to her. It wasn't a note. It appeared to be some kind of badge. Wait... it WAS a badge. An FBI badge!

The Mole took a few steps closer to her. He reached into the pocket again replaced the badge, and pulled out silver, gleaming handcuffs. Lammy gasped in horror and took a few steps back. "No, no, NO! You're _no-ot _gonna arrest me! You ca-a-an't! You ha-a-ave no reason to! Get awa-a-a-ay!" Frightened, the sheep backed up, not knowing where she was going. A red-orange brick just happened to be behind her on the ground; it caused her to trip backward, making her land on her bottom again. "Oof," she uttered. The Mole was getting more near. "Sta-a-ay ba-a-ack!" bleated Lammy. The Mole didn't listen. "I said get awa-a-ay!" He wouldn't get away, he would only get closer. "STOP!" she shouted. Then... she thought of something. Quickly, Lammy looked down at the brick that tripped her. It looked heavy and hard. She frantically picked it up with her right paw and aimed it at the Mole. "Get... ba-a-ack!" Lammy threw the brick. The brick soared right at the Mole's stomach. It hit him, causing him to wince and to drop the handcuffs. He rubbed his belly to sooth the pain. Then he placed his paw on his hip, seeming angered.

Instead of his left paw, the Mole now pulled out his _right. _In his right paw, he held some sort of stick. This stick appeared to be... a walking stick... the kind that blind people use. It was white, and had had some red at the end of it. Knowing that Lammy wasn't willing to let him cuff her, the Mole bent down and felt the ground for his handcuffs. After he found them, the handcuffs were then placed back into this pocket.

What he did with the walking stick was interesting. He thrust it to the left with both paws, and then to the right, like a warrior with a spear. Next, he passed it between his paws so that it went around him in a circle, while spinning it at a moderate speed, showing great manual skills. Then, he held it out with his right paw, spinning it even faster. Faster and faster it spun in his paw, so fast that turned nearly invisible, like a helicopter blade. He tossed it up high while it still spun, and he tumbled forward. Down on one knee, the Mole held his right paw out, where the stick fell. He caught it, ceasing its spinning.

Lammy couldn't help but feel impressed. He was like a skilled martial artist with a bo staff! "Whoa," she whispered.

The Mole tilted his head up at her. Rising to his feet, he got into a fighting stance, one in which his stick was held out with both paws, pointing toward her. This caused the fear to return to Lammy.

Lammy _really _did not want to be involved in a fight. On the other hand, the Mole looked quite ready for one.


	10. Chapter 10

Lammy got herself to her feet and backed up. Back and back and back she went, until she couldn't go any further. This was because there was a chain link fence behind her. Lammy turned around and tilted her head upward to see how tall it was. It was as tall as a building that was one and a half stories high. She looked back at the Mole. He was now close enough to hit her with his walking stick. So he swung it down at her.

Lammy made a short scream. Swiftly, she stepped to her right, avoiding the hit. The walking stick made a loud _clunk_ as it hit the rough pavement. Next, the Mole lifted up the walking stick, pulled it back to his left side, and swung it to his right. Lammy ducked, making the stick miss her head. After missing again, the Mole pulled back the stick to his right side, leveled the end of it with Lammy's feet, and swung to the left. This was supposed to sweep her feet and knock her down. But Lammy jumped, letting the stick sweep past under her. Lammy was surprised by herself. She didn't know that she was good at dodging.

The Mole swung at Lammy a few more times. The sheep dodged all of the hits quickly. As they did this, they were slowly turning, so that Lammy was now facing the fence, and the Mole's back was to it. The Mole was getting more and more irritated. He sped up his hitting, using both ends of the stick, hoping to get the sheep. However, Lammy only dodged quicker. Some of the swings of the stick just _barel_y missed her, but they didn't get her. The Mole made another move. He pulled back the stick, twisting his spine. Then, he propelled himself forward at Lammy, spinning himself while holding the stick stretched out, looking like a tornado. To avoid this, Lammy tucked and rolled to her left, out of the spot of which the Mole would have really hurt her if she stayed. Lammy sprung back up to her feet after the Mole stopped spinning. With the tornado ceasing, the Mole pulled back his stick, looking ready to thrust it forward. He walked around slowly in circles, taking steady steps. He didn't know where she was anymore. He turned his head left and right, as if it would help him spot her.

Lammy was aware that he didn't know where she was. So, she slowly and steadily backed up, away from the Mole and the fence, and toward the mouth of the alley. She was planning on leaving, of course. Lammy carefully took her steps, trying not to make a sound. She succeeded in being silent. However, the Mole, who had his back to her, quickly turned around and charged at her. Shocked, Lammy didn't move. The Mole thrust the end of his walking stick at her belly, sending her to fly back a few feet.

"Ow!" yelled Lammy.

The Splendid token also flew, out of her left paw. It soared overhead, past the mouth of the alley. It bounced on the street behind Lammy. Lammy looked back at the token. It rolled straight toward a manhole cover. There was a small, circular hole in its center. The Splendid token rolled and rolled until it reached the manhole cover's center, where the hole was. It got to the hole and fell through it, with no hope of trying to find it. What terrible luck. Lammy groaned.

The groan was caused by two things: the loss of Sniffles's token, and the pain on her belly. A large bruise was going to form on it later. Lammy looked down at her belly and nursed it for a few seconds before looking back up at the Mole, who had his arms raised with the stick in his paws.

"Ho-o-ow did you find me?! Ho-ow are you a-a-able to hit me with tha-at thing! A-are you _a-a-actually_ blind?!" yelled Lammy.

The Mole lowered his arms. He nodded.

"You...you_ a-a-are?! _Then ho-ow do you know where I a-a-am?!" demanded Lammy.

The Mole removed his right paw from the stick and held up his pointer digit. He pointed to his nose.

Confused at first, Lammy stared at him. But after several seconds, she realized something.

"...Ohhhhh..." Lammy said, understanding how the Mole was able to detect her. "You can _smell_ me."

What an acute sense of smell he has. This makes sense... he is a mole.

The Mole raised his arms again, with both of his paws on the stick. He was going to take another downward swing at her, on the head. Lammy shrieked again.

...

Suddenly, something in Lammy's pocket moved. It shifted and shook. And of course, it wasn't the money. It was something else. Something that could move on its own. Whatever it was, moving in Lammy's pocket, was _alive. _The mysterious moving thing ripped through the pocket, with its tiny black fist held out.

Mr. Pickels!

Mr. Pickels hopped up on Lammy's left shoulder and onto her head, and he held up his hands, with a glower on his face.

Down, the walking stick swung, at the poor sheep's head. But it never got to her. It was stopped...

Stopped by that pickle in the top hat!

Mr. Pickels caught the stick's end with both of his raised hands, holding it just above Lammy's head.

Lammy gasped and rolled her eyes up to see Mr. Pickels. She could see his arms preventing the Mole's hit.

Mr. Pickels roughly shoved the stick away from Lammy, causing the Mole to stumble backward. After regaining his balance, the Mole took a few steps back to where Lammy was, with his walking stick held out forward. Mr. Pickels leaped from Lammy's head and onto the stick. With excellent balance, Mr. Pickels ran up the stick, getting close to the Mole's own head. When he got close enough, Mr. Pickels jumped up to the Mole's face and gave it some mighty, rapid punches.

One punch with the left fist. One punch with the right fist. Another punch with the left, another punch with the right. After two more punches, Mr. Pickels spun around in mid-air and used his right foot to deliver a powerful kick to the Mole's cheek, which made him stumble back again.

Mr. Pickels landed easily on the ground with his feet. The Mole was rubbing the parts of his face that Mr. Pickels hit. While he was doing this, Mr. Pickels ran to the Mole's right shin and kicked it. The Mole then grasped that shin. And while he was doing that, Mr. Pickels kicked the other shin. The Mole then moved his paws to that shin. Mr. Pickels reached for the Mole's paws and pulled him down. The Mole fell on his front side. Mr. Pickels hopped onto his back. He jumped high and fell to the upper part of the Mole's back, elbow first. The elbow jabbed onto The Mole's back quite hard. Mr. Pickels cartwheeled off of the Mole. Then, the Mole straightened up, with the visible parts of his face burning a deep scarlet color. Oh, snap! He was _mad!_

...

Lammy was standing about twelve feet from the Mole. While afraid, she watched as the Mole ran at her. After he got close enough, the Mole jabbed his walking stick at the ground, tightened his grasp on it, and swung himself around it horizontally like a ninja, holding his foot out. The foot was coming to Lammy's collarbone.

...

Mr. Pickels, who was right in front of Lammy, leaped up and caught the Mole's foot with his two tiny hands. He shoved it away. Then he ran to the Mole and grabbed the end of his walking stick. He harshly jerked it away from the Mole, who lost his grasp of it. With the walking stick, Mr. Pickels madly beat the Mole a dozen times, hitting him in a different spot with each hit, including his head.

_WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! __WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! _

Before he could come to the thirteenth hit, the Mole shot up his right paw and caught it. Then he gripped it with his other paw and tugged on it. Now he and Mr. Pickels were in a tug-of-war, only rivaling each other with a stick instead of a rope. Growing impatient, Mr. Pickels gave the stick multiple strong, sharp pulls and pushes, making the Mole jerk around in place. With great strength, Mr. Pickels pulled and spun himself around in place, with the Mole in the air, who was holding on to the stick. Mr. Pickels spun faster... and faster... and faster. Finally, when he spun fast enough, the Mole lost his hold of the stick. He flew to the chain link fence, hitting it with his back, and then falling to the ground on his front side.

Mr. Pickels snapped the walking stick in two and tossed the pieces away to one side of the alley.

The Mole must have heard the breaking of his stick because when Mr. Pickels did that, he sharply tilted his head up, his face burned scarlet again. Fists formed in both of his paws. He sprang up high, did three front flips, and landed gracefully on his feet.

...

With his right fist pulled back, ready to sock Lammy's right cheek, the Mole charged at the sheep. Lammy gasped.

...

Mr. Pickels, who was standing right in front of Lammy again, jumped up and grasped Lammy's coat where her stomach was. From there, he quickly jumped and held up his arm, blocking the Mole's punch with his right forearm. They were now forearm to forearm.

The Mole swung again with his left paw, this time at Lammy's other cheek. Mr. Pickels jumped and blocked the Mole again with his other forearm. The Mole turned and kicked up his right foot high, aiming for the left side of Lammy's head. While using his hands to hold on to Lammy's coat, Mr. Pickels kicked upward, blocking the Mole's foot with his own right one.

Then, after jumping from Lammy, Mr. Pickels held out his feet at the Mole. They struck the Mole's chest, making him almost fall back. After returning to the ground, Mr. Pickels ran to the chain link fence, which was just two yards behind the Mole. He climbed up half its height. From there, he leaped onto the Mole's head. He grabbed the Mole's ears and yanked them with force. The Mole tried using his paws to stop him, but Mr. Pickels would just kick his paws away if he tried. The pickle pulled the ears to one side, driving the Mole to one of the alley's walls. Mr. Pickels caused his head to bang onto one of the grey brick walls. Then Mr. Pickels hopped down from the Mole's head to the ground. He grasped the Mole's dark coat from behind and pulled, making him fall onto his back. When he landed on the ground, Mr. Pickels hauled him up, over his head, and threw him to the other side of the alley, where an open dumpster stood with lots of graffiti on it. Some of the writings read, _Lumpy is a weenie _and _Vandilism is fun _and_ UNICORN POOP IS MAGICAL. _The Mole flew right into it, causing some huge, full plastic bags in there to ruffle.

...

Lammy's eyes were wide as she saw this. They widened even more when she saw one of the Mole's paws grip the ledge at the opening of the dumpster. His other paw did the same. Finally his head emerged, with a rotten banana peel on top of it. Scarlet became the color of his face for a moment. He took the banana peel and threw it away aggressively. Then he hauled himself out, doing a front flip before hitting the ground with his feet. He did a few somersaults on the ground. On the last one, he jumped far, with his right foot about to hit Lammy's face.

...

Mr. Pickels leaped up and grabbed the Mole's collar, stopping the mid-air kick. The pickle pulled him back and slammed him onto the ground on his front. The Mole got up quickly, but Mr. Pickels was already at him. The fruit kicked him multiple times on the knees and shins. He stomped on his feet too, hurting the Mole even though his own feet were puny. He did this several times. Finally, Mr. Pickels sweep-kicked him once again, just like he did in the park, only harder this time.

...

A couple of cracks were heard. Cracks coming from the Mole's right ankle. The Mole winced, but strangely, he didn't scream in pain. _Now _he fell back. The Mole was on the ground, holding his busted ankle. Even though his eyes and mouth were hidden, it was easy to tell that he was seriously hurt. Trying his best to ignore the pain, the Mole jerked his head up at Lammy, obviously furious. His face was now even more scarlet than ever. Lammy could have sworn that she saw steam rising out of his ears. He reached into his right pocket and pulled something out. Something black with a handle, a muzzle, and a trigger.

A _gun._

Its handle was tightly gripped by the Mole's right paw. Its muzzle was pointed directly at Lammy. Its trigger was ready to be pulled. Lammy screamed loudly.

* * *

Nutty was eating a plateful of sugared pretzels while sitting next to Sniffles on installed seats at the bowling alley. His giggling ended when a sound reached his ears, making them twitch. His head turned sharply at the entrance doors.

"I heard a scream..." said Nutty, squinting his eyes. They shot wide open. "Lammy!" he shouted, dropping his plate of pretzels and dashing to the doors at an unbelievable speed.

"Huh?" said Sniffles. Nutty was already out the door before he said this.

* * *

Seeing the gun, Mr. Pickels put on a startled expression. He frantically looked around on the ground and rested his eyes on an object. A rather large, red-orange, rectangular prism-shaped object... the brick that tripped Lammy. He dashed to it, picked it up with one of his hands, and aimed it at the Mole. With power, the pickle threw it at him.

...

_BOMP._

The brick hit the Mole on the head. The Mole, who was sitting on the ground, tensed up, wobbled, and fell. His back hit the ground, and his arms were spread.

He was out cold.

Panting with fear, Lammy looked down at the Mole. She put her paw on her heaving chest. After a moment, she looked around for the Splendid token. She remembered it falling through the manhole, so she turned around at and glanced at it. The token was long gone now.

Taking a deap breath, Lammy decided to head back to the bowling alley. She began walking to the dark alley's entrance. But... before leaving, she looked at the pickle on the ground some distance away from her. She went back, picked up the pickle, and put it in her other, unripped pocket.

When she reached the sidewalk, she turned right, heading south now. That's when she saw a light green squirrel with a worried expression and candy on his face sprint to her. It startled Lammy at first, but she soon realized that it was Nutty. When he got to her, he halted.

"Lammy, Lammy, Lammy! Are you okay?!" He grabbed her arms, making her jump. His hold on them was a little too tight. "Where were you? What took you so long to get back? Why do you look so tense? I heard you scream! Why did you scream? I gotta know! ARE YOU OKAY?!" hollered Nutty. "Please tell me!"

Calming down, Lammy answered him, "Yea-a-ah... I'm... I'm oka-a-ay."

"You don't _sound_ okay!" said Nutty, shaking her.

"It's because I'm no-ot," mumbled Lammy, looking down. She mumbled this _very_ quietly, and she felt positive that Nutty didn't hear her. But man, oh man. That squirrel's hearing was INCREDIBLE.

"YOU'RE _NOT_ OKAY? _WHY?!_" he yelled.

Lammy jumped again, surprised that Nutty answered her mumbling. Also, he was pretty loud.

"I m-me-I mean-I _a-am_ oka-a-ay!" she retorted.

"You _still_ don't sound okay!" he said.

"B-but... I _a-am! _Really!" she said.

"I don't believe you."

"I _a-am_ oka-a-ay! Why don't you believe me?"

"Because you sound like you're_ UNokay_!"

Lammy thought for a bit. Then she asked, "So... if I so-o-ound oka-a-ay when I sa-ay I'm oka-a-ay, you will believe me?"

"Yes," replied Nutty, releasing her and crossing his arms.

So Lammy cleared her throat and said to him in her calmest voice, "I'm oka-a-ay. No-ow do you believe me?"

Nutty's skeptical face turned into a glad one. "Yes," he answered. He uncrossed his arms. After letting out a sigh of relief, he said to her,"Phew. For a moment there, I thought that you were unokay. Because if you were unokay, then _I _would feel unokay. I'd get all sad and stuff. I can't feel okay if you're unokay. That's_ not_ okay! Because... I don't want you to feel unokay. I want you to feel _okay. All_ the time. Then _I _would feel okay. And I'd be happy. And... since you're okay right now, then I'm okay right now. Thank _goodness_ that you're okay." He paused. "Do you get what I'm saying?" There was silence. "Lammy?" More silence. "Lammy?" Silence. "Lammy, were you listening to me?"

Lammy was gazing at Nutty tenderly. She _was_ listening to him. What he said right there may have sounded kind of funny, but... it was also very touching to her. What a great friend he was, for worrying about her.

Lammy felt her heart flutter. Her arms hung down, with one of her paws holding the other. Her head was tilted slightly.

"Lammy?" said Nutty.

Lammy shook her head and snapped out of her gaze. Coming back into focus, she told him, "Yes."

Nutty looked confused. "Yes what?" he asked.

"Yes, I get what you're sa-a-aying," she answered.

Nutty tilted his head. "Yes, you get what I'm saying about what?"

Lammy smiled. "Yes, I get what you're sa-a-aying abo-o-out... feeling oka-a-ay when I'm unoka-a-ay... wa-ait, no... I meant-"

"What? I never said that!" Nutty told her. "I don't feel okay when you're unokay! I feel _unokay_ when you're unokay."

"Yea-ah, I know, but tha-at's not what I meant."

"Then what _do_ you meant?"

Lammy sighed. "I _mean _tha-at I get what you said abo-o-out feeling unoka-a-ay when I'm feeling unoka-a-ay, and feeling oka-a-ay when I'm feeling oka-a-ay."

Nutty squinted a little. "Huh?" he said.

Lammy gently put one paw on her forehead and tried not to laugh.

"You're little oka-a-ay and unoka-a-ay speech! I get it!" she explained.

Nutty looked away and thought for a moment. Then he smiled and looked at her again. "Ohhhhhh, _that!"_ he said."You get my okay and unokay thing... okay." He chuckled a little. The two stood in silence. After several seconds, Lammy was the one to break it. Her eyes shone.

"Nutty... tha-at thing tha-at you said to me was really sweet, and I-"

"There you are, Lammy!" exclaimed Sniffles, jogging over to the sheep and the squirrel. He panted. "Nutty... said... he heard you screaming... is that true?"

The sheep's eyes widened, remembering what just happened in that dark alley. "Er... yes! Yes, I was screaming," she confirmed.

Sniffles looked worried. "You were?" he asked. "Why? What happened?"

Nutty looked worried too, and he turned to Lammy. She did tell him that she was okay, and she sounded like it too, at least the fourth time she said it, in that calm voice. But she also did scream. You don't just scream without a reason.

The sheep girl looked around, avoiding their eyes. "I..." she began. "I s-screamed b-because... I..." She searched her mind, looking for a reason to give them. And she didn't want it to be the real one.

"Because..." asked Sniffles. "You what?"

She got it.

"I screamed," lied Lammy, "because... I tho-o-ought I sa-a-aw... a scary ghost... in the a-a-alley. But it turns o-o-out, it wasn't a scary ghost, I was just ima-a-a-agining."

"Hmph. Just like you do with that stupid pickle that can't walk," muttered Nutty.

"What?" asked Lammy.

"Nothing," he told her.

Lammy glowered at him before continuing, "... Anywa-a-ay... it turned o-o-out... to a-a-actually be just a pair of tighty whities laying on to-op of a tra-a-ash ca-an... and they were huge... I think they could fit a few people at once."

Nutty and Sniffles looked amused. Sniffles said to Nutty, "Hmm. I think it was your mom's underwear, Nutty." Nutty looked at him.

The two boys started howling with laughter. Lammy laughed a little too. She would have laughed harder if she hadn't almost been shot that day.

Sniffles wiped away a tear. "That was a good one. Come on, Nutty, you gotta give me that."

"All right, it was, I admit it," agreed Nutty.

Sniffles chuckled and looked up at the sky. The sky was a dark blue shade.

"Hmm. We still have some time for some bowling." said Sniffles. He faced Lammy and asked, "Oh, I almost forgot. Did you get my Splendid token back?"

Lammy bit her lip and glanced away from him. Her eyes moved down, and she frowned, displaying a look of shame.

"No... I didn't. It went through a hole in a ma-a-anhole cover. It's in the sewers no-o-o-ow... I'm sorry, Sniffles," she apologized.

Sniffles sighed. "It's okay," he told her. "It wasn't your fault." Then he looked at Nutty and made a _tsk tsk _sound. "But a certain _someone _owes me new tokeeeeeeeen," he said in a sing-song voice, lengthening the "ken" in "token".

Nutty frowned.

Sniffles reached into his chest pocket and pulled out a watch. He checked the time and looked at the other two.

"Let's get inside and bowl," he said.

Lammy frowned. She didn't feel like bowling anymore. Not after that fight. The poor sheep just wanted to go home now. She shook her head and told them, "Um, a-a-actually... you know what, guys? I ca-a-an't... really pl-a-ay with you anymore toda-a-ay..."

Nutty and Sniffles looked disappointed.

"Aw, really?" said Nutty.

"Why not?" asked Sniffles

Lammy found a lie in her head and gave it to them. "Because... I have some errands... to run... that I forgo-o-ot about. I have to buy more groceries... and to pick up my dry cleaning... and clean my house... and stuff. So, yea-a-ah..."

Nutty groaned. Sniffles squinted at her. He told her, "Do you _really_ have errands? 'Cause you sound like you're lying."

"I'm no-o-ot lying! I really do ha-ave errands. I forget abo-o-out errands a lo-ot... I just remembered tha-at I ha-ave some toda-a-ay," Lammy lied.

Sniffles was still squinting. After a pause, he said, "All right... only Nutty and I will be playing now... it's a real bummer that you have to go."

Lammy shrugged and replied, "Yea-ah. REAL bummer... I'll see you both la-a-ater, oka-a-ay?" Then she walked past them, going south.

"Okay," said Sniffles. "See ya." He turned to Nutty and said with a cocky face, "Come on, Nutty. Get ready lose to the mastah."

Nutty also made a cocky face. "You're on," he said.

The boys walked to the bowling alley's doors. Sniffles went in first, with the doors shutting behind him. Nutty was about to open them for himself, but he looked at Lammy, who was now a building away from him.

He called to her, "Lammy?"

She stopped and turned around to face him. "Yea-a-ah?" she called back.

Nutty paused for a bit. "...Are you sure you're okay?" he asked, with a concerned face.

Lammy smiled at him. It took her a few seconds to answer. "Yes, I'm sure I'm oka-a-ay, Nutty. Tha-a-ank you for worrying, but you really don't need to. I'm fine..."

Nutty smiled back at her. "Good. Just making sure. And since you _are_ okay, then_ I'm_ okay," he replied.

The smile on Lammy's face grew. "Okay," she said. Then she turned around again and continued on her way home.

Nutty headed back inside the bowling alley.

_THOMP._

"Ow!" uttered Nutty, after walking right into one of the doors. He forgot to open it. He wasn't focusing.

"Oh, why does she have to be so cute?" Nutty asked himself, rubbing his face and opening the door to let himself in.


	11. Chapter 11

There they were, at it again. The two dark green thieves, grabbing as much as they could carry. Lifty grabbed a pawful of chocolates. Shifty grabbed a pawful of gum packs. Lifty grabbed an armful of cereal boxes. Shifty grabbed an armful of chip bags. Lifty's arms were loaded with macaroni boxes, so to get all of the soup cans off of a shelf, he used his bushy, striped tail to push them down into an open burlap sack. Shifty stuffed some juice boxes into his hat and used his arms to scoop up some waffle and pancake boxes from the freezers. The twins were emptying everything they collected into two enormous burlap sacks, one for each of them to carry. They weren't_ buying_ anything, of course. They were taking items from the grocery store without paying. The store was closed, and the lights were off. Also, the doors were locked. But the raccoon duo knew a way inside. In order to not have their actions recorded, they brought wooden sling shots and used them to shoot rocks at all of the surveillance cameras, breaking them.

"Lifty!" called Shifty silently, from an aisle.

"Yeah?" Lifty called back, from another aisle.

"The bags are loaded enough!"

"Ya sure?"

"Yeah! They're starting to overflow! Let's beat it!"

"Okay!"

So Lifty gathered some last boxes of different kinds of pastries and Shifty mustered some last bags of a variety of nuts. They met up in the aisle that was in the middle of the grocery store, where the two full sacks sat on the floor. Shifty gripped the opening of one of the sacks while wearing chains of sausages around his neck and wrists like a necklace and bracelets. Lifty gripped the opening of the other sack while wearing a hat he made out of fruits. The twins carried their sacks over their shoulders toward the automatic sliding doors, which were on the west side of the store, passing the empty customer checkouts and not paying. When the two finally made it to the door, they halted, realizing something. The automatic doors were not going to open for them! They were shut and locked, with their systems turned off.

"Shoot," said Shifty. "We forget about the doors. They're locked!"

"How do we get all this stuff out?" asked Lifty.

"Well, uh... we didn't come in through the doors. We came in through the air vents, remember?"

"Are you saying we should bring all this out through them?"

"Yeah. Where else can they be brought out? Come on, let's get these to the vents," ordered Shifty, carrying his sack away from the door and to the corner of the store that had the opened air vents.

Lifty carried his sack alongside Shifty. "Wait, wait. When we get there, how are we gonna do it?" asked Lifty.

"One of us is gonna climb into the vent, while the other passed up the sacks," explained Shifty.

"Hmm. Sounds good, but... these sacks. They're ginormous! Do ya really think they'll fit in the vents?" questioned Lifty.

"Mmm, maybe," answered Shifty. "If we squeeze 'em in, they might."

The brothers made their way through the store to the northeast corner with the open vent. Their full burlap sacks would have been difficult to carry for the average person, but the dark green twins were _stronger_ than the average person, since they were used to carrying heavy objects and loads. When they were almost to the air vent, Lifty looked to his left, toward the north side of the store. There was an empty stand that had free samples of some sugary treat that they've never seen before.

"Ooh! Free samples!" whispered Lifty loudly. He placed his burlap sack down and ran over to the free sample stand. On the stand's table, there lay a silver tray. On the tray, there were eighteen small, white, paper cups. In the paper cups, there were what appeared to be as chocolate covered, spherical bon bons with sprinkles on them.

Shifty watched him go, with a questioning expression.

"Lifty!" Shifty called. "What are ya doin'? We've got enough stuff already."

"But there's free samples here!" Lifty called back.

"So?"

Lifty didn't answer. He smiled as he picked up one of the chocolaty bon bons, opened up his mouth, and tossed it in there. He chewed, tasting the treat. His eyes moved up as he decided whether he liked it or not. Shifty just stared at him, wondering if he did or didn't, while also feeling annoyed. Lifty spoke as he chewed.

"Hmm... it's sweet... and crunchy. It has a really good chocolate taste. And... hey! There's some vanilla under the chocolate. Nice. This is yummy. Oh, wait! That's not all. Under the vanilla, there's buttercream! It's great. Really great..." stated Lifty.

Shifty rolled his eyes and told his brother, "Okay, you got your_ free sample. _Now let's go!"

Lifty chewed and chewed, savoring the bon bon. It did have a delicious blend of chocolate, vanilla, and buttercream.

"Ya know what?" said Lifty. "This just might be my new favorite-" He gagged. He put a paw over his mouth, as if trying not to throw up. He gagged some more.

Shifty's eyes grew. "Lifty?" he said.

Lifty gagged and gagged with his mouth closed. He put his left paw on his left knee and held up his right paw, with it's pointer sticking up, as if saying "Hold on". He gagged once more. Finally, he spit out the bon bon. "Blagh!" he uttered.

Shifty had his head tilted as he looked down at the chewed up bon bon and then up at Lifty. "What's the matter?" he asked.

Lifty panted a little as he answered, "That... was... the third worst thing I have ever tasted."

Lifty tilted his head the other way and said while puzzled, "What? I thought you said it was yummy."

Lifty shut his eyes and shook his head. Then he tolf Shifty, "It _was_."

Shifty lowered one eyebrow. "It _was?" _he repeated.

Lifty opened his eyes and answered, "Yeah, it _was... _at_ first._ It was yummy when it came to the chocolaty and vanilla-y and buttercream-y parts. _Those_ parts were yummy. But then... oh, no... and then, at the end, it got... awful! There was this thing in the middle of the little... bon bon or whatever it is... and it tasted _nasty!_ It was too sweet! _Way_ too sweet. Aw, man! Yuck!" Lifty spit a few times.

"Really?" asked Shifty, intrigued.

"Yeah," said Lifty, walking to him and handing him a bon bon. "See for yourself."

Shifty removed his right paw from his sack and took the bon bon from him. He looked closely at it, examining it all around. Its sprinkles came in all of the colors of the rainbow, and also white. Shifty shrugged and threw the bon bon gently into his mouth. He chewed it and said to Lifty while doing so,

"Hey, this chocolate _is_ good. Oh, there's the vanilla part you were talkin' about. Very tasty. And... here we go. The buttercream. I like it." Shifty shut his eyes. "Mmm! I have to agree with ya on this. This _is_ yummy."

Lifty shook his head slightly. "Get ready to barf," he said.

Shifty chewed a little more. Suddenly, he came to a part in the bon bon where there was this hard little sugar ball. It was harder than the solid chocolate on the outside of the bon bon. Shifty bit it and crushed it. His eyes shot open.

"Blugh! Bleh! Erg-yuck!" he uttered. He was gagging. He put one paw over his mouth as if trying not to vomit, just like Lifty did. He turned away and spit out the bon bon. Then he turned back to his brother. "Whoo, man! That was DIS-GUST-ING! No wonder you almost barfed. I see what you mean," he told him. Shifty shivered a little. "TOO sweet."

Lifty picked up his burlap sack and Shifty replaced his right paw on his. They went back to walking to the vent that they crawled into the store from. On they way, Lifty and Shifty spoke to each other.

_"Why_ are those in here?" asked Shifty.

"Ugh, I know," agreed Lifty. "They're just... repulsive. I didn't even think it would possible for something to be sweet enough so that it's gross."

"Oh, great. Now the taste is stuck in my mouth. Bleh!" said Shifty. "I'm gonna try to get rid of it with some gum." He reached under his hat and pulled out a pack of fruity gum. It was a double pack that came in strawberry and blueberry. He pulled out a blueberry gum, opened it, put it in his mouth, and tossed away the blue wrapper on the floor.

"Ooh, I think I'll some gum too," said Lifty, holding out his left paw.

"Strawberry or blueberry?" asked Shifty.

"Blueberry."

"Strawberry it is."

So Shifty handed a strawberry gum to Lifty, who scowled at him but took it anyway. They chewed their artificially flavored gum as they finally reached the vent.

"All right, we're here. Now, one of us needs to get up there," stated Shifty.

"I'll climb!" said Lifty.

"...Fine," said Shifty. "Here, lemme give you a boost." Shifty bent down his left knee and placed on of his paws on top of the other, facing up, on top of that knee. Lifty put his right foot on Shifty's paws.

"You'll jump one the count of three, got it?" commanded Shifty.

"Got it," answered Lifty.

"Okay, here we go. One... two... three!" Shifty pushed his paws upward on Lifty's foot as Lifty jumped at the same time. Lifty made it to the vent on the wall. Holding onto it with his arms, he pushed himself up inside.

Shifty tied up the sacks and called up to him, "Now here come the bags!"

"Okay!" said Lifty, sticking his arm out of the dark vent to make an "okay" sign. His voice echoed.

"Catch!" said Shifty, throwing his heavy burlap sack up to Lifty with great strength. Lifty caught it by its tied opening. He pulled. The sack wasn't that easy to pull into the vent. Its size made it difficult. Lifty grunted and hauled the sack. "Come on, you!" Lifty said to it, "Get in!" The sack squeezed into the vent. Lifty succeeded. Grinning, he pulled it with him and led himself around in the air vents, which were filled with total darkness. He could navigate himself, though, for he and Shifty have memorized its passages. This wasn't the first time they've robbed this grocery store. Lifty led himself to where the vent ended outside on the roof. When he found it, he poked his head out, with the night sky above him, illuminated by numerous stars. He climbed out of the vent and onto the store's roof. From there, he hauled the sack some more. Grunting, he managed to pull it out and onto the roof with him. The sack would be left on the roof temporarily. After blowing a tennis ball-sized strawberry gum bubble, Lifty hopped back down into the air vent and crawled his way back to where Shifty was.

"I'm ready for the other!" called Lifty.

So Shifty heaved the other burlap sack and threw it up at Lifty, who caught it. With difficulty, Lifty pulled it into the vent. Then he did the same thing as he did with the other sack; he brought it to the roof outside. When that was done, Lifty returned to Shifty.

Shifty grinned up at him. "Excellente," he said. He walked up to where the vent was an raised his arms. "All right, pull me up!"

Lifty had his eyes on the free bon bon stand.

"Lifty!"

Lifty looked down at him.

"Are ya deaf?" asked Shifty, glaring.

Lifty looked down at him for a second and looked back at the stand. "Yeah yeah, I heard ya... You know that stuff that we tried at that stand? It was bad."

Shifty's glare vanished. "Yeah... it was," he replied. "It had this... level of sweetness that we just can't stand. Or... ya know what? I don't think _anyon_e can stand it. You'd have to have a serious sweet tooth to eat those things. Anyway, let's hurry up. Get ready to catch."

Lifty's eyes widened with an idea. His pointy ears were perked up and his mouth was in an "o" shape. "Heyyy..." he whispered.

Shifty wore a quizzical expression. "What?" he asked.

Lifty looked down and put a paw on his chin, thinking.

"What?" Shifty asked again.

Lifty looked down at Shifty, with his eyes slightly squinted. "...Remember that squirrel guy... at the park? With the ice-cream? The one we sell stuff to sometimes? The one with the googly eye- "

"Oh... the dope?" asked Shifty.

"Yeah, him!" confirmed Lifty.

"What about him?" asked Shifty.

"...Ya know how we see him around a lot, _buying_ sweet stuff like lollipops and gumdrops and cupcakes, etcetera, and_ eating_ sweet stuff, and even _wearing_ it on his fur all the time?

"Yeah..."

"And how he goes absolutely NUTS for it?"

"He's a nutcase. What are you getting at?" inquired Shifty.

"Well... _his_ sweet tooth is pretty sweet. All he ever buys from us is candy. What if... maybe... he would... actually like those... bon bon thingies?" said Lifty.

Shifty's eyes widened, his ears perked up, and his mouth formed an "o" shape. "Hey... you're right. He... might actually like them! Lifty, come down here." He turned around and looked back at the bon bon stand. Then, while slowly looking back up at Lifty, he said, "Maybe we should take some of those with us and giv-" Shifty stopped mid-sentence when he quickly noticed that Lifty was in the air, falling down on him. "AAAH!" he shouted. Lifty landed on him, knocking him down painfully. They ended up on the ground. Shifty was hurt, but Lifty was fine.

"Thanks for breaking my fall," Lifty snickered, getting up. "That's for tripping me last week down the stairs in that one big house."

Shifty rose up on his feet, his face burning red. He said through clenched teeth, "Why... you stupid, infuriating, abominable little barf bag!" He kicked Lifty in the shin.

"Ow!" Lifty said.

"Get your butt over there and bring those bon bons! And hurry up!" shouted Shifty. Lifty stuck his tongue out at Shifty, which angered him even more. Then he walked over to the bon bon stand. Shifty waited for him with his arm crossed and a glare on his face. While by the bon bon stand, Lifty looked around.

"How do I carry all of this?" he asked himself silently. He looked over to the fruit section, which was just west of the bon bon stand, and not too far away. There was a black metal pole next to where the apples were. On the top of it, it held a roll of plastic paper bags. Lifty grinned as he jogged over to the pole and reached for the paper bag that was sticking out of the role. He tugged it, and it was torn free, along the dotted lines that attached it to the role. He gripped both of its plastic handles and whipped it in the air to inflate it. It was now open. With the bag in paw, Lifty went back to the bon bon stand. Using on paw to hold the bag, he used the other to lift the silver try with the rest of the sixteen bon bons in paper cups and emptied them into the bag. They barely filled the bag, but carrying them this way was far easier than it would have been to carry them on his own. Shifty tapped one of his feet on the ground, waiting. Lifty walked back to him, holding the white, transparent plastic bag with the bon bons.

"Ahem," said Shifty, raising one eyebrow.

Lifty looked confused. "What?" he asked.

Shifty pointed at the huge stack of boxes of bon bons that was right by the free bon bon sample stand and told him, "You forgot those." Lifty turned his head and saw it. When he turned back, he squinted a little at his twin.

"You want those too?" he asked. "I thought you said we had enough stuff already."

"When you bring those here too, _then_ we will have enough stuff." Shifty told him.

Lifty's eyelids hung down half-way. He replied, "We don't have to take all of them. We just need a little bit of bon bons to see if the squirrel likes them. 'Cause if we bring in those boxes, and the squirrel doesn't like 'em, then we'll have wasted our time _getting_ the boxes. Why don't we just take what we have here," (Lifty raised the plastic bag in one paw.) "and see if he likes it, and then we'll know whether to come back here for them or not."

Shifty scratched his head and looked down. He looked back up at Lifty and nodded. "Hmm. I guess you're right. Okay." He bent down and got his paws ready for boosting again. "Let's get you up there again."

Shifty boosted Lifty up to the vent once more. Then he tied the plastic bag with bon bons closed and threw it up to Lifty, who caught it. Of course, the plastic bag was MUCH easier to send up and fit through the vents than the two weighty burlap sacks full of unpaid groceries. After Lifty placed the plastic bag aside, he leaned down from the air vent and grabbed Shifty's raised paws. He pulled him up with him into the vent. After Shifty got in, Lifty picked up the bag, holding it in one paw while crawling behind Shifty, making the vents echo with the bag's ruffling.

"Don't forget to close it," ordered Shifty, not looking back. Lifty looked at the air vent's opening that he just came in from. Right by himself, there lay a wide metal plate with long horizontal holes, or rather slits. He picked it up with both paws and fit it into the vent's opening so that it would stay. When Lifty was sure that it would remain stationary, he picked up the plastic bag again and continued crawling his way through the vents, behind Shifty, in the pitch-blackness.

* * *

It was the next morning. The light green squirrel fluttered his eyes open. He sat up in his cozy bed, covered in many candy wrappers as if they were one huge, colorful, incoherent blanket. The treats that were usually seen stuck on his fur were gone. Next, he stretched and yawned. He moved his legs to one side of his bed so that they hung down. His sheep friend drifted into his active mind. He imagined her smiling, which made him smile. However, his smile vanished as soon as he remembered how she was the day before, when she was about to go bowling with him and Sniffles. She seemed so... troubled. She told him that she was "okay", and that she had errands to run. Normally, Nutty was very oblivious to lies, even if they were totally obvious. Sniffles mentioned that Lammy sounded like she was lying. Now that he thought about it, Nutty agreed.

"I wonder if Lammy's_ really_ okay," Nutty said to himself. "She seemed kinda... nervous about something." The squirrel remembered when Lammy told him otherwise.

_I'm oka-a-ay. No-ow do you believe me? _said Lammy just the day before. Nutty shook his head at himself.

"What am I saying? She _said_ she was okay, so it's true." Nutty told himself. "Just forget about it." After that brief talk with himself, the light green rodent got up and walked to his bathroom to brush his teeth. He stood in front of the bathroom mirror. By the sink, there was a cup with a huge orange lollipop in it. The lollipop resembled a circular orange slice, with all eight bits. Nutty grabbed it and dipped its sugary end into a bowl of sugar. When it had plenty of sugar on it, Nutty began to brush his teeth with the lollipop. He brushed for about two minutes. When he was done, he spit out the sugar and replaced it in the cup that held it. He decided to use "mouthwash" next. Right next to the cup with the lollipop, there stood a can of soda. Nutty opened it and poured a mouthful of it into his mouth. He gargled, and then swallowed it, instead of spitting it out like people would normally do with actual mouthwash.

After that was done, the squirrel made his way downstairs to the kitchen. He ground some jellybeans in a coffee grinder. Then he poured the now powder-like jellybeans into a mug with words on it that said,_ I_ (heart symbol) _CAKE_ in purple font. Milk was poured into it after. He placed his "coffee" on the kitchen table. Then he went to the stove to cook pancakes. When they were done, Nutty gripped the handle of the pan and brought it to the table, where he was going to sit at. A white china plate was ready for him at his seat. Four pancakes were then stacked on the plate. A fifth one still lay in the pan. For fun, Nutty flipped it up in the air and caught it with the pan. He giggled and did it a second time, tossing it higher, and caught it again. He successfully caught it again the third time too, which was higher than the second. On the fourth time, Nutty tossed the pancake too hard. The pancake flew to the ceiling and got stuck to it, laying flat. Nutty looked up at it, stopped giggling, and made a slight groan before sitting down. He decided to get it after he finished the four pancakes on his plate. So he sat down and scanned the table. The syrup bottle was missing. This made him gasp. He ran to the cupboards above the kitchen counter. None of them contained any syrup bottles. He checked the large portable cupboard by his refrigerator. No syrup to be found.

"N-n-nuh-no... syrup?" stuttered the squirrel. "Oh, the horror. The horror! You can't have pancakes without any syrup! You just can't! Who_ does_ that? It's so uncivilized!"

So the panicking rodent rushed to the front door, with the pancake on the ceiling falling right on top of the others on the plate. "Wait!" he shouted to himself, stopping sharply just a few feet out the door. He stopped in a running position with his right leg out in front of him.

Nutty looked down at himself. "AAAAH! I'm naked!" He zoomed inside. A moment later, he zoomed back out, "dressed" in the sugary treats that were always seen on him.

Down the sidewalk in town he rushed, passing Cuddles, who was strolling down the same sidewalk ahead of him going in the same direction.

"Whoa! He's fast!" Cuddles commented to himself.

Next, he passed Flaky, causing her to jump from fright.

Then, he passed Toothy, who was holding up a chocolate bar, about to take a bite. Nutty zoomed backwards to where he was, took the chocolate bar, and went back to zooming forward. "HEY!" shouted Toothy, outraged.

While zooming, Nutty ate the chocolate bar in two bites. An open silver-colored trash can stood ahead. He tossed the wrapper into it, still zooming.

"Mmm, mmm," said Nutty, after swallowing the last of the chocolate. On and on, he went, on his way to the supermarket.


	12. Chapter 12

The raccoon twins were sitting next to each other on a metal bench near a bookstore, which was east of a clothing store, which was east of a furniture store, which was east of the supermarket. There were a few other buildings west of the supermarket. All of the buildings were facing south. The twins were counting up all the money they've looted or found on the ground. They counted as they looked through stacks of green dollar bills. From his personal stack of bills, Lifty counted up to $30,765. Shifty counted $30,810 in his own stack.

"Ha," said Shifty. "I got more."

Lifty sighed.

"That means I win," stated Shifty. Occasionally, the brothers would have a money-snitching contest. The winner would get to have 75% of the earnings from selling stolen products. "_I_ get three-quarters of the cash we'll get after we sell the stuff in the truck."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," muttered Lifty. Shifty snickered. He looked at his brother and shook his head while smiling. He reached into his fedora hat and pulled out something small.

"Here," said Shifty, "Maybe this'll cheer ya up a little." He flipped a single golden coin to Lifty, who caught it.

"Really?" said Lifty, rolling his eyes.

"I thought I'd be a little generous for my wittle bwothah," Shifty teased.

"You? Generous? Ha. You're no more generous than I am your mom," Lifty replied.

Shifty's smirk was gone for a bit. The smirk returned. "Aww, you don't have to be so gwumpy, baby bwothah." He pinched one of Lifty's cheeks.

"_Baby_ brother?" repeated Lifty, smacking away Shifty's paw. "You're only like five minutes older than me."

"You're just a siwwy, gwumpy wittle child," teased Shifty. "Ya want me to buy you a bottle, or a bib?"

Lifty stared at him. He made a small glare and told him, "Ya know what? I think maybe _you_ might be _my_ mom." Shifty put on a somewhat surprised face at that reply. He was about to say something back, but then Lifty held up his paw at him, with his head focused ahead. Right in front of the bench that the twins were sitting on, Cub was there, playing with a toy rocket.

"Twee... two... one... bwast off!" Cub said, holding the rocket in his left paw, moving it upward slowly. "Pwooshhhhhhhh," he whispered, making the sound effect of a rocket motor. Then he made the rocket slowly move horizontally through the air. In his right paw, Cub held a wallet with dollars sticking out.

"Look, mom! Do ya see what he's got?" asked Lifty.

Shifty scowled at being called "mom", but he replied, "Yeah, I see it."

Cub walked around in a small circle, making the rocket "fly" around. Shifty told Lifty, "Come on, let's try to get it from him." So they got up. Shifty removed his hat and held it out. He dropped his stack of dollars into it. The stack landed on top of a pile of coins in the hat. He kept it held out for Lifty to put in _his_ stack. Lifty tossed it in there. "The one with the one hundred bill on top is mine," informed Shifty. Lifty's stack had a twenty dollar bill on top. Shifty placed his fedora back onto his head. Then the raccoons walked casually next to each other, up to Cub. They looked down at the small child, grinning.

"Hey, buddy," greeted Shifty.

"How ya doin' little guy?" greeted Lifty.

Cub's smiling ceased. He looked up at the two kleptomaniacs. "Umm..." he said.

"Whatcha got there, a rocket?" asked Shifty.

"Has it been to the moon yet?" asked Lifty.

Cub looked at Lifty, and then at Shifty. He replied, "...My daddy towd me to stay away fwom you guys."

Lifty and Shifty's eyes grew. However, they grinned again.

"Oh, don't listen to him," said Shifty, moving his paw down as if he were saying, "Oh, please".

"Yeah, we're _friendly,"_ said Lifty. Cub backed away.

"But my daddy said I shouldn't talk to two gween waccoons," Cub told them.

Lifty began, "Hmm. Well-"

"He said that you wike to take things fwom us," stated Cub.

Lifty and Shifty exchanges glances. Then they looked back at Cub. Shifty began,"No, we-"

"And that you're bad," Cub interrupted.

Lifty and Shifty tilted their heads. Lifty said, "We're just-"

"And that you're cweepy," added Cub.

Lifty and Shifty's eats perked up. Shifty said, "We're not-"

"And that no one wikes you," continued Cub.

Lifty and Shifty frowned. Shifty protested, "That's not tr-"

"And that you fail at life," added Cub.

The raccoons wore shocked expressions for a moment. Then they glowered.

Lifty's paws made fists and Shifty crossed his arms.

"Look, kid," said Shifty. "First off, we're not... actually raccoons. We're... uhh..."

"Badgers," finished Lifty for Shifty.

"Yeah, we're... badgers," said Shifty. "Second, we don't steal. We just..."

"Borrow things for a really long time," finished Lifty.

"Weally? When do you give things back?" asked Cub.

Lifty stifled a laugh and answered, "When pigs fly."

"Huh?" asked Cub, never having heard that phrase before.

"You know," said Shifty. "when pigs start to fly? They can't right now. But if they ever do, that's when we'll give people all their stuff back."

"Ohhhh," said Cub. Then he smiled. "I would wike to see a pig fwy. That would be so cool."

"We bet it would be," said Shifty. "And third, we're here to..."

Lifty rolled his eyes around, trying to think of something.

Cub's smile grew. "Awe you hewe to pway with me?" he asked.

The hatted raccoon paused."...Err... yeah, sure," he answered. "We love... rockets. Like the one you have right there." Shifty pointed to the toy rocket in Cub's left paw.

Cub looked at his rocket. He smiled and told the twins, "Santa Cwaus gave it to me fow Chwistmas."

"Oh, did he?" said Shifty, having already made a plan on stealing the wallet. "You must have been a really good kid for him to give you such a rocket. You have _your_ rocket, now _we_ need one."

"But I onwy have _one_ wocket" stated Cub.

Shifty looked at the wallet that Cub held in his right paw. "Only one, you say?" he asked.

"Yeah," the child answered. "I don't have anothew one."

"Hmm..." Shifty said. "Say, kid, ya mind giving me that wallet for a bit?"

Cub smiled and handed the stuffed wallet to the hatted raccoon.

Shifty took it. He and Lifty mischievously grinned. "Now I've got one," Shifty said, holding up the wallet and brandishing it.

Cub squinted a little. "No you don't. That doesn't wook anything wike a wocket," he told Shifty.

"Kid, have you ever heard of the art of imagination?" asked Lifty.

Cub tilted his head. He asked, "Imagination is an art?"

"Yeah," answered Lifty. "Let's just_ imagine_ that the wallet is a rocket."

"A great big rocket on a mission to the moon," added Shifty.

"Ooh! Can my wocket go to the moon too?" asked Cub.

"Of course," said Lifty. With the wallet in his right paw, Shifty bent down and had it touch the ground.

Shifty said, "This rocket shall launch off in three... two...-"

"Wait!" said Cub. He rushed to Shifty, bent down next to him, and had his rocket touch the ground. "I want to bwast off with you."

"Um, okay," said Shifty, half-smiling. "...Ready?"

"Weady," answered Cub.

"Three..." counted Shifty.

"Twee..." counted Cub.

"Two..." counted Shifty.

"Two..." counted Cub.

"One," counted Shifty.

"One," counted Cub.

"Blast off!" declared Shifty.

"Bwast off!" repeated Cub.

Shifty rose the wallet off the ground while making a vocal rocket motor sound. He rose it up high with his arm. Cub did the same with his toy rocket.

"Pwoosh!" said Lifty. "And now the rockets are leaving Earth! Say good-bye to Earth."

"Bye Eawth!" said Cub, waving at the ground. Lifty chuckled.

Shifty and Cub made their pretend rockets "fly" around for a little while. While doing this, Shifty thought about how he was going to walk away with the wallet. He got an idea.

"Oh, no!" said Shifty.

"What?" asked Cub.

"It can't be!"

"What is it?"

"It's... it's... a Martian ship!" Shifty told him, pretending to be dramatic. He removed his hat from his head with his free paw and held it upside-down so that the money in it wouldn't fall out.

"A Mawtian ship?" repeated Cub.

"Yeah, a Martian ship!" said Lifty.

"What's a Mawtian ship?" asked Cub.

"A spaceship from the planet Mars," explained Lifty.

"Uh oh! It's got me!" said Shifty, tossing the wallet into the fedora.

Cub gasped. "No!" he exclaimed. "Howd on, I'll save you!"

"It's too late, my fellow astronaut. The rocket has already been captured. And now the Martians are going to take them to Mars for some experiments!," said Shifty.

Cub frowned sadly. "But-but we wewe supposed to go to the moon!" complained Cub.

"Well it looks like the Martians have ruined the mission," said Lifty.

"The rocket's on its way to Mars, now!" said Shifty.

With the wallet in it, Shifty placed his hat back onto his head. Then he and Lifty began walking away from Cub and toward the parking lot.

Cub watched them go. He was frowning. "Whewe awe you guys going?" he asked.

"We were captured, remember?" replied Lifty.

"Yeah, and we're being taken to the mother ship! It's a big ship that's more important than the other smaller ships, in case you don't know what it is," added Shifty.

"...Whewe is the mothew ship?" inquired Cub.

"Right over there!" Shifty called to him, using a thumb to point behind him, at the truck that they drove. He and Lifty climbed into the truck. Shifty took the wheel. He ignited the engine. Then he started backing the truck away from the parking divider in front of it. He slowly drove along the sidewalk in front of Cub. The left side of the truck was facing him. The toddler just stared at them.

"Well, this is it, kid!" called Shifty.

"Yeah, and now the Martians are going to cut us open to look at our insides!" added Lifty, sitting on the passenger seat.

Cub put on a puzzled face.

"It's been fun playing with ya, but we've gotta go. See ya!" said Shifty, giving a wave that resembled an army salute.

Lifty did the same, saying, "Ciao!" Shifty stepped on the truck's starter pedal. The truck began to speed off. Cub just stood there on his spot, expressionless. Then, he smiled and waved to them, who were getting further away from them.

"Bye!" he called.

The raccoons heard that. They snickered.

"Hee hee hee, that wasn't so hard!" snickered Lifty.

"Too easy," agreed Shifty, snickering.

"He literally just_ handed_ it to you!" said Lifty.

"It was like taking candy from a baby! Well, in this case, we were taking a wallet," said Shifty. The truck came to a red street light, so it halted. Shifty reached into his hat and pulled out the stuffed, brown, leather wallet. In it, there was a picture of Pop, smiling warmly. A fold of the wallet dropped down under Pop's picture, revealing a picture of Cub, smiling playfully. Shifty zipped open a compartment in the wallet that held a thick stack of dollars. Some change was in it too.

"A_ loaded_ wallet!" he said, pleased.

"Man," replied Lifty. "Kids are _so_ naive."

* * *

Cub was playing with his rocket alone once again. Pop came rushing out of the bookstore, with a worried expression. He frantically looked around until his eyes found his son. A surprised and happy expression formed on his face.

"Son! There you are!" he exclaimed, running over to Cub and picking him up, hugging him. "Thank heavens I've found you!"

Cub hugged back, then he pulled away and looked up at his father. "Hey daddy! I found your wawwet," he told him.

"My... wallet?" asked Pop.

"Yeah, your wawwet. I found it on the gwound in the stowe. I wanted to give it to you but I couldn't find you. Then I went outside and pwayed with my wocket. Pwoosh!" Cub moved his toy rocket around in the air, in front of Pop's face.

Pop stared at him. "Where is my wallet?" he asked.

"Wight hewe," answered Cub, holding up his empty right paw that originally held the wallet. His eyes were lightly shut, making him look content.

Pop glanced at his son's empty paw and then at his eyes, looking confused. "Right... where...?" he asked.

Cub's eyes popped open. He glanced at his paw, which lacked the wallet. His mouth made an "o" shape. He turned his head in different directions, trying to spot the wallet. But then he remembered something. So he smiled again.

"Son," asked Pop, looking stern, "where is my wallet?"

"I gave it to two nice gween badgews," answered Cub.

Pop widened his eyes. "You... gave it... to two... badgers?" he asked, looking quite serious.

"Yup," confirmed Cub, smiling.

Pop was silent for a moment. Then, he asked his son, "Did... they look like they were wearing masks? And... did they have creepy smiles? And did one of them wear a hat?"

Cub moved his eyes up in thought. He answered, "Hmm... yes... yes... and yes."

Pop glared at Cub, who stopped smiling. "Son!" he scolded, shaking a pointer digit. "What did I tell you about going near those two? I said to stay away from them! And you spoke to them! Why would you_ ever_ give them the wallet, son? They stole it from you!"

Cub smiled again. "They didn't steal it, daddy. They onwy bowwowed it," he explained.

Pop raised his eyebrows. "Borrowed?" he repeated, sounding astounded.

"Yup," Cub said, shutting his eyes lightly in a content-looking manner again. "They said that they were going to give it back when pigs fwy."

Pop frowned and lowered his eyebrows, knowing what that expression meant. Then he growled and his face burned scarlet with anger. Oh, how he _hated_ that raccoon duo.

Cub opened his eyes and looked at Pop.

"Hee hee. Your head wooks wike a tomato," he commented.

* * *

The supermarket came into view. The light green squirrel giggled with excitement.

"Whoo hoo hoo hoo! Ah'm gettin' mah syrup tuhday!" Nutty exclaimed in a phony southern United States accent. His large bushy tail was stretched out behind him, rippling in the wind. As the sugar demon approached the doors of the supermarket, his wide grin began to fade. Closer and closer he got, with his grin shrinking smaller and smaller. When he got within twenty feet in front of the supermarket, Nutty halted, with his heels scraping the ground. He looked up with his mouth hanging open, looking greatly disappointed.

Right below the sign of the supermarket, a huge white sign that read, _CONDEMNED. _

"Huh?" said Nutty, looking around. He just noticed the yellow barricade tape in front of him. On it, there were black words in a thick font that read,_ "CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS". _He read it aloud to himself.

"Crime skeen... do not cross?" he read, mispronouncing the word "scene".

"Crime _scene," _corrected someone near Nutty. He turned to his right. Handy was there, holding a huge open can of spackle with his nubby arms. "Do not cross," he finished. The can was slipping from his nubs, and Handy struggled to keep it up.

"Crime scene?" repeated Nutty. "What happened here?"

"Oh, you wouldn't believe it. Some crazy lady decided it would be real fun to attack everyone in the store last night. So many people got hurt! She attacked men, women, and..." Handy trembled a little. "even the children! It was madness, Nutty. Only a few left the place with minor injuries. There were fifty-five people in there. Forty-three of them were injured... and... twelve of them were killed." Handy paused for a bit, looking grim. Then he continued, "And that's not all. That... madwoman damaged the windows, crushed some cash registers, tipped a bunch of shelves over, made some holes in the walls..." (Handy raised his can of spackle.) "...which is why I need_ this-_whuh-whuh-whoa!" Handy's can slipped from his nubs for a second, but he caught it quickly. It slipped a few more times, and Handy caught it quickly with his nubs a few more times. "Heh heh. That was close," chuckled Handy. "Anyway, you know what else she-whah!" The can slipped from Handy's nubby arms again, and he failed to catch it this time. The can fell to the ground on it side. It was a good thing that the spackle wasn't as fluid as paint, otherwise it would have spilled. "Aw, man!" said Handy. He bent over to pick it up, not reaching it. He bent even lower so that he touched it, but he struggled trying to lift it. Seeing that Handy was having some difficulty, Nutty bent down, picked it up, and rose again. Handy rose again after, smiling at Nutty.

"Whoo, thanks, Nutty," thanked Handy.

Nutty smiled back and replied, "No problem." Handy stretched his arms forward, expecting Nutty to give him the can.

Nutty was about to, but then he chose not to. "Umm, I think I'll carry this for you," the squirrel said.

"Gee, thanks! You're a real pal," responded Handy. "Come on, I need you to put it somewhere for me."

Handy bent low and stepped passed the barricade tape, going past it. Nutty did the same, holding the can of spackle. The two walked through the automatic sliding doors of the supermarket, which opened for them. The glass on the doors was cracked. Nutty nearly dropped the can when he saw the inside of the building. What Handy said about what happened to the supermarket was true. All of the windows seen were cracked. Shelves lay on the ground. Some of the cash registers were destroyed. And there were also holes in all four of the supermarket's walls. "Whoa, this place is a wreck!" commented Nutty. "Tell me about it," agreed Handy. They came to a spot near a wooden ladder leaned against the western wall of the supermarket. "Right here's fine," said Handy, gesturing to a spot next to the ladder. Nutty placed the spackle can down on said spot.

Then he asked the orange beaver, "Are you working here alone?"

Handy gave a small smile and answered, "No, well, for now, I am. There are other repairmen coming to help me. I just came here really early, before all the others."

"Oh," said Nutty.

Handy looked at Nutty and slightly shook his head. "What?" asked Nutty. Handy answered, "Ya wanna know what else the madwoman did?" Nutty looked intrigued. "What?" he asked. Using one nubby arm, Handy pointed up at the center of the ceiling, where a large fan hung. Nutty looked up at it. Lumpy was hanging from one of the blades by the back of his underwear. It was now obvious that he was wearing pants that were the same color as his fur, which blended in quite well. The fan spun very slowly, moving the light blue moose around in a circle. He looked incredibly bored.

He called down, "Uhh, how much longer am I gonna be up here?"

"I'm working on it," Handy called back to Lumpy. Nutty stared up at Lumpy with his lower jaw hanging down, utterly shocked. Handy turned back to Nutty.

"I don't know _how_ she did it! That ceiling's four stories high!" said the orange beaver.

Nutty slowly looked back at Handy. He searched for his words. Then he asked, "Who... who _is_ this crazy lady?"

Handy sadly shook his head and replied, "No one knows. Not even one customer who was here last night knows."

Nutty widened his eyes and asked, "No one? No one knows who it was?"

"Not a single soul. Except the psycho herself."

"What? What do you mean, 'Not a single soul'? Didn't anybody at least see what she looked like?"

Handy shook his head in response. He added, "Almost nobody saw her. Know why? It's because she cut the store's cables, stopping all of the electricity! The lights were out, and it was nighttime! It was way too dark to see. Also, the surveillance cameras were disabled. The people knew she was a female because they could tell from her voice, when she was laughing insanely. There are detectives on their way here to gather some evidence that could lead to her. But..." Handy paused. "only one person caught a quick glimpse of her. And it was from behind... the guy said that she was of average height, and she wore a white sweater. That's all he could tell the cops, though." The beaver frowned.

"...A white sweater?" repeated Nutty. He looked down. "Hmm..."

"Yup," said Handy. "That's all the cops and detectives know about the evil lady. We're all hoping that she'll be found soon." Nutty nodded.

"Hey," called Lumpy from the ceiling fan again. "Can you hurry up and help me? I'm hungry."

"Just hang in there, Lumpy!" called Handy. Lumpy glared at him. Handy thought about what he just said. "My bad! I wasn't trying to make a pun! I meant just... wait for a while!" Lumpy groaned and crossed his arms, slowly moving around in a circle as the fan slowly twirled.

"Hungry..." Nutty mumbled to himself, remembering why he came to the supermarket in the first place. Eyes popping wide, he straightened up. "Oh! The syrup!" he cried.

"Huh?" said Handy, puzzled.

"Handy, where is all the stuff in the store? You know, the fruits, the vegetables, the meats, the dairy... THE SYRUP!" asked Nutty.

"Oh, those!" responded Handy. "It was all picked up from the floor by the janitors two hours ago. The items are being stored somewhere temporarily. I don't know where, though. Sorry."

"What?! Aw, come on! What is wrong with those people?" yelled Nutty, throwing his paws in the air. The squirrel sadly turned around and began trudging his way out of the messy supermarket. "I'm gonna go now... I'll see ya later, Handy," he called, in a disappointed tone.

Handy watched him trudge for a moment before calling, "See ya, Nutty!" Then he glanced at a trowel, which rested on the third to the bottom step of the ladder. He picked it up with the ends of his nubby arms, getting ready to spread some spackle on a large hole in the wall he stood nearby. "All righty," he said to himself. "Time to get busy."

* * *

The squirrel continued trudging. Out of the store he went, and across the huge parking lot. He turned to his left when he was half-way across it, going east, toward the sidewalk. When he got there, he followed it south. He trudged about a mile, stopping at a bus stop. The bummed out squirrel sat on the bus bench, waiting for the bus.

* * *

Lifty and Shifty happened to be sitting in their truck, a good forty feet away from the bus bench that Nutty was laying on. The left side of it faced east, toward that bench. In the truck, Lifty was searching through the many pockets of Pop's wallet. Shifty rested his head on his left paw, with his left elbow resting at the driver's window. He was staring outside, planning the next robbery for him and his brother to commit. He was staring into the direction of the bench that Nutty was on. If Nutty had been sitting up, Shifty would have seen his head, but the squirrel was laying down. Also, his tail was tucked in, so Shifty couldn't see that either.

* * *

The bus arrived quite soon. It's doors opened for Nutty. The candy-adorned rodent got up and walked to the bus doors.

* * *

When Shifty saw Nutty walking toward the bus, he lifted his head from his paw, with his eyes becoming round. Lifty found a small picture in one of Pop's wallet's compartments. He studied it for a few seconds. Then he commented on the picture, "Whoa! There's a bear lady here holding paws with the bear man! I think she's his wife." Lifty whistled. "She's a pretty one. And... wow, she looks a lot like the little ki-"

"Lifty!" said Shifty, grasping Lifty's left arm and briefly shook him, pointing outside with his other paw. "Look, out there!"

Lifty dropped the wallet, and his eyes became round, just like his brother's. "Holy mackerel, it's him!"

The raccoons scrambled out of their truck and dashed toward the bus where Nutty was. Nutty handed some change to the bus driver, who was a generic tree friend covered by a shadow; he seemed to be a beaver or a squirrel. After the bus driver inserted the change into a plastic box, Nutty looked for a seat.

* * *

'Wait!" shouted Shifty. "Wait!" shouted Lifty shortly after. It was too late, the doors shut, and the bus drove off, going south. The brothers watched the bus move for a little bit.

"Darn it!" said Lifty, throwing a fist. "Shoot!" said Shifty, giving the ground a stomp. "Quick, to the truck! We're gonna follow him."

The thieves dashed back to their truck.

* * *

Nutty decided to sit on a seat in the middle section of the bus. He walked to it, ready to sit down. However, he froze before doing so. Right next to the window, Lammy was sitting, with a large empty plastic jar sitting next to her on her left. She was examining her purple bow in her paws.

She said to herself quietly, "Ma-a-aybe I should get another one of these in a different color." Then she looked forward, feeling the presence of a male. Lammy turned her head to her left and looked up at Nutty. She beamed a him and put the bow on her laps.

"Hi, Nutty!" she greeted happily.

"H-hi, Lammy," Nutty greeted back shyly. He gave a small wave and a weak smile.

"Sit with me," Lammy told him, picking up the plastic jar and placing it on her laps, next to the bow. Then she patted the space next to her. He sat down with her.

"What a coincidence this is!" said Lammy to Nutty.

"Yeah..." agreed Nutty. "Wait... what's a coincidence?"

Lammy gave a small smile. "A coincidence?" she repeated. "It's when-um... two things ha-a-appen a-at once. Like..." (She raised her right pointer, representing it as herself.) "I just go-o-ot o-on the bus, and I'm sitting here..." (She raised her left pointer, representing it as Nutty.) "and you just go-o-ot o-on the bus, and you're sitting here... with me..." (Lammy moved her pointers slowly toward each other.) "and no-o-ow we're in the sa-a-ame bus on the sa-a-ame seat... together..." (Her pointers were put together, touching.) Lammy was silent for a few seconds. Then she quickly separated and put down her paws. She looked at Nutty. "Er... do you understa-a-and what it is no-o-ow?"

"I think I do," answered Nutty. He looked at the plastic jar on Lammy's laps. "What's that for?"

"What's what for?" asked Lammy.

"That," said Nutty, pointing at the jar. "That jar."

"Oh," said Lammy. "Well, Mr. Pickels was supposed to sta-a-a-ay in his old ja-a-ar, which was ma-a-ade of gla-a-a-ass. But early this morning, while he was in it, he ma-a-anaged to push it and himself o-off the ta-a-able tha-at he was o-on, a-at my ho-o-ouse, and it broke into a lo-o-ot of pieces. So I bo-o-ought a new ja-a-ar." (Lammy raised the jar and held it up to Nutty.) "And it's ma-ade of _pla-a-a-astic." _Lammy's digits tapped the jar and she grinned. "He'll ha-a-ave no hope of esca-a-aping it no-ow." As he was listening to this, Nutty looked forward at the seat in front of him, with his eyelids hanging down half-way. Lammy asked him, "Where a-are you riding to?"

Nutty's eyes opened up all the way again, and he looked to his right at Lammy. He told her, "To the gas station. You know the one by the Mexican food restaurant?"

"Yes," said Lammy.

Nutty explained, "The gas station has a store. And in that store, there is a shelf with syrup, and some honey too. The syrup brand there isn't as good as the brand I was hoping to get at the supermarket. But I couldn't get any there because-"

"Wa-ait, the s-superma-a-arket?" interrupted Lammy.

"Yes, the supermarket," answered Nutty. "I ran all the way there to get the good syrup, which I can't find in any other store that sells the same brand. But when I got there-"

"Wh-which superma-a-arket?" interrupted Lammy again, looking uneasy. "The one o-o-on the blo-ock tha-at you left?"

"...Yeah..." confirmed Nutty. "And when I got there, there was yellow police tape around it. Handy was there, fixing up the place. I saw the inside of the supermarket, and it was a mess! A bunch of stuff was broken, like the windows, the walls, the... money machine thingies, the water fountains, the fruit carts, and the frozen food fridges, and the aisle shelves were tipped over! They looked like dominoes! You know the game with the little white rectangles and black dots on them?"

Lammy nodded, looking nervous.

Nutty chuckled and said, "Heh heh. You and me should play that sometime. It's really fun." Then he went back to the supermarket topic. "And you know what else? Handy told me that some crazy person hurt a bunch of customers yesterday night. Those poor people..."

Lammy looked even more nervous. Then she asked Nutty, "Hey, um, Nutty? I ha-a-ave a question abo-o-out the cra-a-a-azy person... was he... this ta-a-all?" Lammy held her paws apart, with one directly above the other, facing each other. The distance between her paws was the about height of her head.

Nutty studied the distance between her paws for a moment. He answered, "No, I don't think so. Handy said that someone saw him for a second from behind. The person said that the guy was... average heighted, and that he-wait... why am I saying 'he'? It was a _she. _Sorry 'bout that. _She_ was average heighted."

_"'She'?"_ repeated Lammy, astounded. "'She'?! Mr. Pi-" (She stopped herself.) "A'hem. But from what I've heard, the atta-a-acker was a_ he." _

"Oh, no," said Nutty, shaking his head. "It was a lady. And she injured... uh... a certain... number of people, and she killed... a certain, smaller number of people. She's a madman-I mean madwoman!"

The sheep shuddered. "WHAT?" she said, stressing the "W" sound of the word "what".

"I said, she was a madwoman. And also, Handy told me that the same guy who saw her also said that she wore a white sweater."

Looking away from Nutty, Lammy looked down at her coat. Then she silently stared forward at the seat in front of her, wide-eyed.

"I hate that lady," growled Nutty. For some reason, Lammy flinched at hearing that. "She hurt and killed a bunch of people, AND she took away my chance to get the world's greatest syrup. It's the one brand that puts all the other brands to shame."

Lammy's lips moved, but she made no sound. Nutty felt the bus slowing down, and he looked out the window. His eyes were on the gas station store.

"Well," said Nutty, "it looks like this is where I'm getting off. Off to buy the second best brand of syrup, which still can't even compare to the first best." He rose from his seat to leave, and hesitated. He turned back to Lammy, who was still staring ahead.

He told her, "Oh, and about your bow, I think you'd look pret-..." (Nutty lightly rubbed the back of his neck.) "Erm, I think any color would look good on you." He grinned weakly.

This caused Lammy to stop trembling. Her face became blank. She looked to her left, up at Nutty. A smile formed on her lips.

"You... really think so?" she asked him.

"Yeah..." answered Nutty.

She beamed at him and told him, "Tha-a-a-ank you."

Blushing lightly, the squirrel backed up and told her, "Um, I'm gonna... get off now... bye."

Lammy watched as he backed away. "Oka-a-ay," she said back. "Bye Nutty." Her eyes remained on him until he disappeared behind the seats I front of her. But when he got outside, she looked out the window at him. Then she placed her bow back on her head.

* * *

He was on his way to the small store at the gas station. When Nutty was almost there, he heard someone say,

"Psssst!"

Nutty stopped in his tracks and looked around. After shrugging, he continued toward the gas station store.

"I said 'Psssst'!" said a scratchy male's voice. It had a New York Brooklyn accent. Nutty stopped again. "That means 'come here'!"

"...Who's there?" asked Nutty.

"Why don't you get over here and find out?" said another voice with the same accent, sounding almost exactly like the first, only deeper. "We might look familiar."

Nutty hesitated. His ears twitched, finding the direction of which the voices were coming from. Then he walked southeast, toward the east side of the small store. He turned around the corner and found a duo of identical thieves grinning widely at him.


	13. Chapter 13

"Hey there!" greeted Lifty.

"Did ya miss us?" greeted Shifty.

Nutty looked at Lifty, and then at Shifty, who stood right next to each other. "Oh, it's _you_ guys," he said.

"That's right," confirmed Lifty.

"Good ol' _us_ guys," added Shifty.

"Yup," said Lifty. "Say, what brings you to this store on such a fine day?"

Nutty answered, "Well, I came here to pick up some syrup, 'cause I'm having pancakes at my house. So I went to the supermarket to get some, but it was a wreck and an attack happened there yesterday, and there was yellow police tape around it. So, since I was too unhappy to run, I took the bus here because there's syrup here too, only this store doesn't have the good kind like at the supermarket. But getting the syrup from here is better than getting none at all. Eating pancakes without syrup is madness. So... yeah, that's why I'm here."

Lifty and Shifty glanced at each other for a second, and looked back at the light green squirrel.

"We see..." said Shifty. "So you lack syrup."

"Yes," confirmed Nutty, looking at his right wrist as if there was a watch there. "And I need to get some while it's still early enough for the pancakes to be considered breakfast." He turned and ran, on his way to the entrance of the small gas station store. "I'll be right back."

He only ran several steps before feeling a paw grab his right shoulder from behind.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on there, speedy," Shifty told him.

Nutty halted and turned around, facing Shifty, who used his left paw to stop him. Shifty withdrew his paw.

"Yeah, there's no need to rush to that ol' store. _We_ have what you're looking for," added Lifty.

Nutty's eyes became round, and he looked at Lifty. "You do?" he asked.

"You bet," answered Lifty. "In fact, we've got _lots_ of it! Just wait here a bit, and I'll go get some for y-"

"Show me where it is!" interrupted Nutty, zooming next to Lifty.

Lifty looked at him, looking a bit surprised. "Wow," he commented. "Ya just can't wait, can ya?"

"Bring me to the syrup!" ordered Nutty, loudly. "Now!"

"...O-okay! Man..." said Lifty. He began walking toward the truck that he and his twin owned. Shifty remained at his spot, with his paws behind his back, waiting.

Lifty opened up the back of the truck. There were all sorts of gems, jewelry, clothing, furniture, and even a few stolen pets: a kitten, a puppy, and a bird in a cage. In addition, there were lots of grocery items too. Lifty walked to a corner of the loaded section of the truck and reached into a large cardboard box. He removed four plastic bottles of syrup from it. Each bottle contained one liter of syrup. He scooped them up and gave them to Nutty, who swiftly took them. It was the brand that Nutty wanted. While carrying the bottles, Nutty hopped out of the truck, laughing.

"Wowee!" exclaimed Nutty. "You have the_ best_ kind right here, the one that I was looking for!"

"That'll be sixty bucks, please," said Lifty, holding out his right paw.

Shifty, who heard Lifty say that from the distance, objected to Lifty taking the money. "Oh, no, you don't!" he called. "All the cash is goin' to the hat, remember?"

"It was worth a try," grumbled Lifty. So Nutty dashed to the other twin.

Before Shifty knew it, Nutty was right in front of him. Using his left arm to support the bottles, he used his right paw to reach into a pocket, which was in his fur, strangely. From it, he withdrew some several dollar bills. Using only the digits on his right paw, Nutty looked through the dollars.

"Uh, I don't think I have sixty dollars," he told the raccoons with a frown.

Shifty snatched the small bundle of cash from Nutty. "That's all right," he said. "The syrup costs whatever amount of money you got here." Shifty brandished the dollars. He slipped them under his fedora.

Nutty smiled. "Great!" he said. "Then... I guess I'll see you fellas later. Thanks a lot!" He turned around, but then the twins stepped in front of him.

"We think right now would be a good time to see us," said Shifty, grinning.

"There's a little sum'm we'd like you to do for us," said Lifty, grinning just like Shifty.

Nutty smiled again at them. "Oh, okay. Sure. You _did_ give me my much-needed syrup. What do you need me to do?"

Lifty and Shifty snickered.

Lifty told him,"Oh, it's a simple favor. Just wait right here. I'll be right ba-"

"I got 'em right here," interrupted Shifty, reaching under his hat and pulling out the plastic bag with bon bons. Lifty stopped and turned back, to his brother.

"You had those with you already?" asked Lifty, round-eyed.

Not answering Lifty, Shifty reached into the bag and pulled out one small white paper cup with a bon bon in it.

He held it out to Nutty and said to him, "See this?"

Nutty squinted at the chocolaty treat. "I do," he answered.

"Good," said Shifty. "Now we need you to taste it." He handed the bon bon to Nutty, who took it. The squirrel looked down at the bon bon in his right paw, and then up at the hatted raccoon. Lifty walked up next to his twin, standing on his left. The two faced Nutty. Shifty nodded his head at the bon bon. Lifty horizontally moved his up-faced paw, as if saying "Bon appetite".

Nutty shrugged, removed the bon bon from the paper cup, and tossed it up in the air. He opened his mouth and threw back his head. He caught the bon bon in his mouth.

He loved the chocolate. "MMM HMM HMM HMM HMM! YUM!" he exclaimed. "CHOCOLATY!"

Lifty and Shifty chuckled. "That's not all," Lifty told the squirrel. "There's more to it."

"MMM HMM HMM HMM! HA HA HA!" laughed the squirrel. "VANILLA-Y!"

"Keep chewing," said Shifty.

Nutty loudly laughed. "BUTTERCREAMY! HA HA HA HA!"

Both of the raccoon twins had their elbows bent, with fists formed in anticipation. "Wait for it!" Shifty told Lifty.

The squirrel made it to the part of the bon bon with the hard sugar ball. Nutty felt it. He crushed it with his teeth and tasted it...

His pupils dilated and his tail shot straight up simultaneously.

The raccoon twins saw that. They froze.

Nutty started to vibrate in place, making faster movements that of a jackhammer.

The raccoons' eyes went wide.

Nutty giggled, with his giggling getting higher and higher and higher pitched.

Lifty and Shifty backed away.

"Whoa," said Shifty.

"...You all right, buddy?" Lifty asked Nutty.

Nutty giggled and giggled, and shook and shook, with his eye pupils huge.

The twins looked scared. They started to regret giving him the bon bon, fearing what would happen next.

Different parts of Nutty's body twitched, his eyes, his ears, his neck, his hips, his paws, his feet, his arms, his legs, and his tail.

"Oh my," said Shifty.

"Should we help him or leave?" asked Lifty.

"I d-don't know," answered Shifty.

Nutty's grin went wide. "Hee hee HEEEEEEEEEE!" he giggled in a _very_ high voice. He dropped the white paper cup and the syrup bottles.

The squirrels legs suddenly moved as if he was running, however, he wasn't going anywhere. His legs went up and around, and around in circles, going faster than the blades of an electric fan would spin. Then, ever so slowly, he moved backward.

"What's happening?!" shouted Lifty.

"I don't know?!" Shifty shouted back.

Nutty moved back a few more feet. Then, with bullet-like speed, Nutty zoomed right through the space between Lifty and Shifty, with the wind behind him fiercely pushing them.

"AAAAAH!" yelled the twins at the same time, flying back ten feet. They ended up landing on their bottoms, fifteen feet apart from each other.

Nutty's tail rippled rapidly behind him as he sped around in a huge circle, one that had a diameter of ninety-four feet. He raced around the gas station. After running in that circle a little over twenty times, Nutty broke his circle and dashed around on the road in front of the gas station, just barely hitting any cars. He zigzagged back and forth between the gas station's two unoccupied sections. Then he sped to the gas station store, but didn't go inside it. Instead, he ran along the outside of its walls, sprinting _horizontally_ around on it. As he was doing this, he was moving upward. He sped to the roof and ran in a circle. By the sidewalk, there stood a tall sign with words on it that read, _GASOLINE. _It stood around thirty feet away from where Nutty was. However, with his extreme momentum, Nutty leaped far off of the roof and clung onto the gas station sign. Then he horizontally ran down around the sign. If he was to leave a red line behind him wherever he ran, the sign would have had a candy cane pattern.

The raccoon twins were sitting on the ground, watching as he did all off that, while stunned, bewildered, and impressed. The two got up and walked toward each other, with their eyes, still on the sprinting, hyperactive rodent. Once the two raccoons got within three feet of each other, Nutty zoomed up to them and froze in front of them, startling them.

"Whatwasthat!?" Nutty demanded quickly.

Lifty and Shifty didn't understand what he asked, since he said it so fast. They paused in silence.

"P-pardon?" asked Lifty.

"WHAT-WAS-THAT?!" Nutty repeated, sounding somewhat fierce, vibrating in place.

"Oh, uh... th-the thing we just gave you? We-we... honestly don't know... to be honest," said Lifty.

"WHAT?" said Nutty. "Howcanyougivemesomethingifyoudon'tknowwhatitis? Areyoucrazy? Youjustgaveittomewithoutknowingwhatitwas? You'recrazy!"

"Well," explained Shifty, "W-we got it at a g-grocery store last night, and we wanted t-to know if you'd l-like it... _do_ you like it?"

"LIKE IT? You'rekiddingright? You_gotta_bekidding! DoIlikeit? HAHA! DoIlooklikesomekindafooltoyou? Idon't_like_it! ILOVEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" Nutty extended the word "it" at the end of his last rushed sentence, and he sped around the gas station a few times and came back.

"We don't know what they're _officially_ called," said Lifty. "But for now, we're just callin' 'em 'bon bons'."

"Bonbons? Bonbons! Igottahavemorebonbons! Bonbonsbonbonsbonbons! ME-NEEDS-MORE!" Nutty shouted as he ran around Lifty and Shifty in circles. He ran so fast that it looked like a there was a light green circle surrounding the raccoons.

"Whoa!" said the raccoons as they were lifted into the air by a tornado that Nutty made from running around them.

"There's more in here!" yelled Shifty, who raised the plastic bag in his right paw, floating in the air with Lifty. His hat slowly came off his head, and the dollars that Nutty just gave him were hovering between his head and his hat. This made Nutty stop, facing them. He still continued to vibrate in one spot, though. The raccoons floated back down to the ground. The money and the fedora fell back onto Shifty's head.

"GIMMEGIMMEGIMME!" the squirrel barked.

"Ah ah ah," said Shifty, shaking his head and holding the plastic bag back. However, the bag was snatched from his right paw. It appeared to have just _vanished,_ in the blink of an eye. Shifty didn't notice, but Lifty did. Lifty's mouth became like an "o" as he quickly glanced from Shifty's empty paw to the squirrel, back and forth.

"Before we can give ya the rest," said Shifty, "ya need to pay up..." (Shifty just noticed that he was no longer holding the bag. He looked up at Nutty.) "...first."

Nutty was the one holding the bag now. He gripped the bottom of the bag with one paw emptied the other fifteen bon bons into his mouth. Lifty and Shifty had their jaws dropped as they stared at him. When the bag was empty, Nutty tossed it away, and it floated to the ground. There was chocolate smudged around the squirrel's mouth. He belched, and a few empty small white paper cups flew out. He vibrated in place again, very rapidly. His feet repeated the movement that made them spin up and around like an electric fan. He backed up a little, and _ZOOM. _Together, the raccoon brothers were sent flying back _twenty_ feet apart. Nutty sprinted in a one hundred diameter circle around the gas station, almost invisible.

While he was doing this, Lifty and Shifty stood up, walked to each other, and exchanged glances. Their shocked faces returned to their mischievous, grinning form. The two snickered.

"I can't believe it!" said Shifty.

"I know!" agreed Lifty. "Look at this guy!" Lifty tried to point at Nutty, but the squirrel was too fast. "He's completely bananas!"

"Hee hee," chuckled Shifty. "More like _nuts! _'Cause he's a squirrel!" The twins snickered again. "He actually likes that garbage!" the hatted raccoon said.

Suddenly, Nutty froze some hundred feet away. In a second, Nutty was back with the raccoons, standing in front of them. He looked angry.

"What-did-you-say?" he growled.

Lifty and Shifty looked alarmed. "Huh?" they said at the same time.

"Don'tactlikeyoudidn'thearyourself! Iheardyou! Iheardwhatyousaid!" shouted Nutty.

Lifty and Shifty glanced at each other.

"You mean about us calling you 'nuts'?" asked Lifty. "Oh, we-we're... s-s... we're sorr-"

"Youcalledthebonbonsgarbage! Howdareyou! BonbonsareNOTgarbage! Bonbonsareagloriousgiftfromheaven! They'refitforGodtoeat! Youtakebackyoursinfulwordsnow!" ordered the hyperactive squirrel.

"Ok-kay," stuttered Shifty. "The bon bons are... NOT garbage...?"

Nutty stopped vibrating in place for second. He smiled. "Good," he said. "BONBONS!" Then he went back to speeding around in his huge circle, laughing.

Lifty and Shifty looked at each other again. "All right, he loves the stuff," whispered Shifty. "That means we gotta go back to the grocery store to get all of the boxes of bon bons. Then we'll sell_ those_ to him."

"Yeah, and he's probably gonna buy a _lot!"_ Lifty whispered back. "We'll make a fortune!" Snickers came out of the thieving duo. Nutty rushed back in front of them.

"Wasthatall?" he asked them. "Isthatreallyallyouhave? Istheremoresomewhere?"

"Yes, we don't ha-" began Lifty. Nutty dashed to the raccoons' truck. He sped around inside of it and took a second to search for the bon bons. Then he returned to the twins.

"Icouldn'tfindanymoreinyourbigtruckoverthere. WherecanIgetmore? Tellme!" demanded Nutty.

Lifty and Shifty exchanged glances.

Lifty raised a pointer. He asked the squirrel, "Uh, can you run around again for a minute?"

"Okay!" answered Nutty, obeying. He returned to his speed giant speed circle.

Lifty turned to Shifty. He asked him, "What do we tell him?"

"Well, let's not tell him _where_ we got the bon bons," answered Shifty. "He might end up buying a lot of 'em at the grocery store instead of _us."_

"You gotta point there," said Lifty, looking down, putting one of his paws on his chin, thinking. "And he's our best customer... Why don't we just tell him that... _we_ made it ourselves? And that if he ever sees more in that store, or other stores, those aren't the real ones? And that only _we_ have the original good kind?"

"...Yeah! That's brilliant!" agreed Shifty, approving of his brother's plan. "He _is _pretty gullible!" Shifty half-smiled at Lifty and told him, "Ya know, for a moron, you're pretty smart."

Lifty smiled, pleased. "Thanks! Wait..." he said. He remembered the "moron" part. "Hey!"

"Oh, squirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrel!" called Shifty to Nutty, cupping his paws around his mouth.

Nutty dashed back to where the twins were in no time. "Yeah?" he answered, still rumbling in place.

"Listen, uh, about the bon bons..." began Shifty.

"Thebonbons? Yes? What_about_thebonbons?! BONBONS! Heeheehee!" asked Nutty, with his head suddenly jerking, and the pupil of his lazy eye bouncing wildly in all directions.

"You can only get them from... well, from us," continued Lifty. _"We_ were the ones who made them."

Nutty gasped and froze. He silently stared at the twins. His eyes darted from one twin to the other, back and forth. "You..." he asked, "you... guys... _made_... the bon bons?"

"That's right," lied Shifty.

Nutty dropped to his knees. He said to them, "Youtwo... arethegreatestpeopleonEarth. I amforevergratefulforyourmarvelouscreation. Bothofyoushallbeblessed," as he stretched his arms straight up and bowed all the way to the ground in a worshiping position. Then he quickly jumped up, giggled maniacally, and sprinted to the raccoons. "Whah!" Lifty and Shifty yelped. Nutty scooped both of them up with his arms and embraced them, holding them in the air.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou! Thankyou_so_much! Youguysaregeniuses!" thanked Nutty, shaking them around while hugging them too tightly.

"Yeah, yeah, you're welcome!" yelled Lifty, struggling to break free.

"Now could ya let us go? You're squeezin' the life out of us!" yelled Shifty, also struggling.

Nutty dropped them both and stepped back, smiling with his eyes wide.

Lifty and Shifty panted, catching their breath after that death grip.

"If... you see bon bons... being sold anywhere... like in stores..." panted Lifty.

"They're not the real ones," continued Shifty. "They're just... made from a bunch o' copycats... tryin' to pass 'em off as the original."

"But only _we_ have the original," finished Lifty.

Nutty rumbled again. He asked them, "Whenwillyoumakemore? Huh? Huh? Huh? WHEN?!"

"Umm..." said Lifty.

"Uhh..." said Shifty.

"We'll have more bon bons for you... er- tomorrow!" announced Lifty.

"Yeah, tomorrow!" agreed Shifty. "We'll have_ loads_ of 'em for ya!"

Nutty grinned. "Okay!" he said. He waved at them. "See ya!" He zoomed far south, away from the raccoons.

Lifty looked over to the four syrup bottles that Nutty dropped, which were some twenty feet away from him and his brother. "He forgot his syrup!" he said loudly.

"WHOOPS!" Nutty called from a long distance. He zoomed right back and scooped up the syrup. "Almostforgotthese!" he said. Then he zoomed back. "THANKS AGAAAAAAAAAAAAIN!" he called, lengthening the word "again".

Shifty glowered. "He forgot to pay for the bon bons!" he barked.

Nutty returned with some cash that he got from his house just now. He threw a bunch of dollars and coins at Lifty and Shifty's faces. The money hit their faces and then scattered on the ground. Then Nutty sped back away.

Lifty and Shifty snickered, grinning.

"We're gonna be rich!" cheered Lifty.

"Oh yeah!" cheered Shifty, throwing up his fists.

"High four!" shouted Lifty.

The brothers slapped each other's paws up high.

* * *

Nutty was back in his house, in his kitchen. He remembered the pancake on the ceiling, and he looked up, expecting to find it. It wasn't there. It fell on top of the other four pancakes, but Nutty didn't see that.

"Whatthe... where'sthepancake? TheoneIthrewupontheceiling? Whereisit? Wherediditgo?" he asked himself rapidly. He madly looked around the ceiling, and then dashed around the whole kitchen, searching for the fifth pancake. He checked the stove. He checked the cupboards. Then he rushed to the refrigerator and looked inside it. The pancake wasn't there. So he closed the refrigerator and lifted it up with his paws, scanning the space under it. Then he dropped it. _THUD. _He went by the chair with the plate of pancakes.

"Wheretheheckisit? Itwasrightupthere!" cried Nutty, pointing at the spot on the ceiling that had the pancake. "Diditdisappear? Didaghosttakeit? Didtheceilingeatit?" Nutty gasped. "You..." he hissed to the ceiling. The ceiling didn't respond. "You... ate... my pancake!" accused Nutty. "Howcouldyoueatmypancake? Ididn'tgiveyoupermissiontodothat! ThatpancakewasMINE! MIIIIIIIIIINE! Thepancakewasn'tYOURS! Itdidn'thaveyournameonit! Wellitdidn'thave_my_nameoniteither! Butitwasmine! Youeatyour_own_pancakes!" Nutty threw a fork at the ceiling. The points of the fork kept it up there. "BADceiling! Iwasplanningonhaving_five_pancakesthismorning! Five! Notfour! Five!" (Nutty rushed to his pancakes and used a thumb to flip through them.) "One-two-three-four-five! Thatwasfourpancakesonmyplate! Youtookthefifthonethatwassupposedtobe_mi-" _

Nutty just realized something. He counted five pancakes, instead of four. He looked at the pancakes, and then up at the ceiling. He grinned embarrassedly at it.

"Oh. You_didn't_eatmypancake. Anditwasright_here_allalong. It...justfell,didn'tit?" said Nutty. The ceiling was silent, of course. "Iguessthatwasboundtohappen. Isn'tgravityabeautifulthing? Hehheh." Nutty sat down. "Sorry,ceiling. Ishouldn'thaveaccusedyouofdoingsuchathing. Youstillloveme,right?" Silence. "Sogladyoucouldforgiveme... I'mgonnaeatupnow." Nutty quickly poured on lots of syrup; it overflowed the white china plate with pancakes and spread to the table. Then he gobbled up the pancakes without using a fork, or any other silverware. He held the plate to his face and ate without manners.

When he was finished, he removed his paws from his face. The plate stuck onto his face, due to the sticky syrup. It slowly fell off of his face, with strings of syrup forming and stretching. The strings broke and the plate landed on the kitchen table. "WhatdoIdonow? WhatdoIdonow? I'vealreadyhadmybreakfast! ShouldIgotakeawalk? Nah,Ididthatyesterday. MaybeIshouldhangoutwithsomeone! LikeSniffles! OrHandy! OrDiscoBear! OrFlaky! OrmaybeRussell! OrpossiblyMime! HowaboutMole? Or..."

Nutty paused. "Lammy... no... thatwouldbeawkward. I'veneverwenttoherhousetoaskherifshewantedtohangout. Oratleast,notbymyself. Snifflesalwayscamewithme. AndwheneverI_did_gotoherhousetotalktoher,itwastoaskifIcouldborrowsomethingfromher,orifshe'sseenanythingI'velost,orsomethinglikethat..." Nutty fidgeted with his paw digits. "IthinkI'llgoseeSniffles." Nutty zipped out of his house, creating a wind behind him that blew everything on the kitchen table off, including the tablecloth. The kitchen cupboard covers flew open.

* * *

Sniffles was sitting on his living room couch, inserting a screw into some sort of golden-colored gadget, using a screwdriver. He heard the doorbell ring once. He got up and walked to the front door, but before he could get to it, the doorbell rung again and continued ringing again rapidly.

"I'm coming!" yelled Sniffles. "Sheesh." He opened the door and found Nutty standing in front of him, vibrating in place. Sniffles complained to him, "Nutty, you're gonna break my doorbell!"

"HeeheeHEEheeheehee!" laughed Nutty.

Sniffles's scowl disappeared. He put on a puzzled face. He blinked twice. He said back, "Hello... Nutty..."

"Heya,Sniffles!" greeted Nutty. "Howareyou?"

Sniffles began, "...I'm-"

"That'sgoodtohear!" replied Nutty. "WannaknowhowIam? I'mfeelingFANTASTIC! HEEHEEHEE!"

Sniffles paused for a bit. "Wait a second," he said, glaring a little. "Nutty, I've told you time and time again. Lay off the coffee."

"Coffee?" said Nutty. "Butthathelpsmewakeup. EverymorningIgroundupsomejellybeans,addsomemilk,andBOOM! I'mreadytostarttheday!"

"Jelly beans?" repeated Sniffles. "You grind up jelly beans, but not... _actual_ coffee beans?"

"Coffeebeans? Bleck! Thatstuff'snasty. IneveruseTHAT."

"Hmm, what did you have for breakfast this morning?"

"Pancakes!"

"Pancakes? Really? I've seen you eat pancakes, and they never got you _this_ pumped up. Then... why are you... like this?"

"Whatdoyoumean?" asked Nutty.

"What do I _mean?"_ repeated Sniffles. "Look at yourself! You're shakier than usual, you're twitching a lot, and-"

"Shakier?Twitching?Whatareyoutalkingabout?"

"...and you're talking way too fast."

"I'mtalkingwaytoofast? _You're_talkingwaytoo_slow!"_

"..."

"It'slikeyou'reinslowmotionorsomething."

"..."

"Hey,what'sthatoverthere?" Nutty sped over to Sniffles's small living room table that stood in front of his couch. The gadget the Sniffles was working on was on it. It appeared to be some sort of ray gun. "Thisthingrighthere! Whatisit? It'ssofunky-looking! Whatisit?"

"...Oh, that?" replied Sniffles. "That's my... I call it the Amnesia Ray."

"Ooh! That'sacoolname! What'samnesiathough?" asked Nutty.

"It's a condition in which memory is lost. It's commonly caused by brain damage, but it can also be caused by stroke, stress, or traumatic events."

"Oh... sodoesthatmeanthisraygunhasamnesia?"

"No..._ whoever I zap_ with it will get amnesia."

"Ohhh. Whydoyouwannagivepeopleanmesia?"

"Well, I think that the Amnesia Ray would be useful against enemies. Also, I want it to be able to erase _specific_ memories. Like, if there's something that I would like to forget, I could just use the Ray to make me forget it. Or, if I embarrass myself in front of people, I could use it to make them forget what I did, and it will be as if it never happened! I wasn't sure if I should call it the Amnesia Ray or the Memory Eraser, so I'm just going with Amnesia Ray for now. What do you think I should call it?"

"IvoteAmnesiaRay! Itsoundscooler," decided Nutty.

"Amnesia Ray? Huh. All right. Then it shall be called the Amnesia Ray." replied Sniffles.

"Yay!" said Nutty. "Areyoudonemakingit? Huh? Huh? Areya? Doesitworknow? Iwannaseeitwork! Makeitwork!"

Sniffles picked up the Amnesia Ray and examined it. "You know what? I think it's done now." He squinted at it.

"Great!" said Nutty, snatching the Ray from Sniffles. "Iwannatestitonyou."

Sniffles began, "No, no, WAIT! Don't-" Nutty pulled the trigger on the Amnesia Ray. Out of it's muzzle, a bright wave of red light shot out of it, swiftly washing over Sniffles. It was gone after only a second. Sniffles didn't finish his sentence.

He looked at Nutty. He slightly squinted. He scratched his head and asked, "...Was I saying something?"

Nutty answered, "Yes. Youtoldmetowaitbeforezappingyou,butyoutalkedtooslow,andIgottiredofwaiting,andIhadtoseewhattheAmnesiaRaycoulddo. ButIthinkitworks! 'Causeyouforgotwhatyouweresaying."

"Oh, yeah, I just finished making that," said Sniffles. Then he suddenly glowered at Nutty. "Wait, hey!" he shouted. "You used it on me! I'm pretty sure I didn't say you could do that! Give it back!" Sniffles angrily snatched the Ray back.

Nutty made a sad face. "Sorry," he said.

Sniffles sighed. "It's all right, I guess," he replied. "At least it only erased a few seconds of my memory." He examined the Ray some more. "There's a knob here that indicates how much memory you'll erase. The further to the right you turn it, which is clockwise, the more memory you'll erase. The further the other way, the less you'll erase." Sniffles pointed at a small yellow knob. Around it, there were markings, like a clock or a lock that required a combination. There were numbers by some of the marks, and they were all multiples of 5. The highest number was 100. "You can also set the Ray to seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and even _years." _Sniffles pointed at a small column of orange rectangular buttons next to the knob. There were seven buttons in the column. The top button read, _Seconds. _The bottom button read, _Years. _The _Seconds_ button was glowing. "The button that says _Seconds_ is glowing, so that means that the Amnesia Ray is set to seconds."

"Whooooa. That'sprettyimpressive."

"Thanks. Hmm. I wonder it can remove any random specific memories yet. It would be better to test it on someone _other_ than myself, just to be safe." Sniffles looked at Nutty. "Nutty, is there anything you'd like to forget permanently, or anything you don't care about remembering, or something?"

Nutty pondered. "Hmmmmmmmmm..." he gasped. "Iknow! Iremembergoingtoafair,andtherewasthisguyrollingacottoncandymachine. Isawit,andIwantedsomecotton-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," said Sniffles, making a gesture with his paws that meant, "Slow down". He told Nutty, "Hold on. I _barely_ got any of that. Could you repeat it, a little slower this time?"

"Okay," said Nutty. Then he spoke a bit slower, "Isaid, Iremembergoingtoafairandtherewasthis-"

"Slower!" said Sniffles..

Nutty sighed and spoke even slower, "IwenttoafaironetimeandIsawaguyrollinga-"

"Wait here," ordered Sniffles, walking into his kitchen, and opening a cupboard. There was a bunch of jars with unidentifiable chemicals and solid substances. Among these was a jar full of baby blue pills. A label on the jar read, _Tranquil Pills._ Sniffles opened the jar and took out one of the pills. He placed the jar back and walked away with the pill. He brought it with him back to the living room where Nutty was, also bringing a glass of water. "All right, Nutty, take this," he told the squirrel, holding up the small pill.

Nutty widened his eyes at the pills and grimaced. "No,no!" he whined. "Notthepills! Theytastebad!"

Sniffles replied, "Come on, just swallow it. You've done it before, a bunch of times. And you really need to chill out."

"Iwillnottakeit!" protested Nutty.

"You need it. It's gonna calm you down."

"Idon'tcare! Iwont'ttakeit!"

"Yes you hwill," Sniffles said back, putting an "h" sound in the word "will".

"Getthatawayfromme!" yelled Nutty, as Sniffles walked closer to him with the pill.

"Stop being like that," said Sniffles, rolling his eyes.

"NO!" shouted Nutty, He bolted out the front door, becoming a blur with his speed.

Sniffles walked out the door and stood by it. He called to Nutty, "Nutty, take the Tranquil Pill!"

Nutty dashed back, to where Sniffles was and pointed at him. "NNNNO!" he shouted. Right after that, he dashed away again.

"But this one's gumdrop flavored!" called Sniffles.

Nutty zoomed back to him. "Really?" he asked, with his tail straight up in the air.

"Yup," said Sniffles._ "Grape _gumdrop flavored," he added, raising his eyebrows once.

"OOOhoohoohoohoohoo!" laughed Nutty. "Gimme!" He snatched the pill from Sniffles's paw and wolfed it down. Instead of just swallowing it, he chewed it. He grimaced again.

"Mmrf! Yuck!" he said. Before he could spit it out, Sniffles walked over to him and stuffed the glass cup of water into his mouth, forcing him to drink it. Nutty drank the water, washing down the pill. _Gulp, gulp, gulp._ When the cup was empty, Sniffles pulled it back.

Nutty scowled at Sniffles. "Yousaiditwasgrapegumdropflavored!" he growled.

Sniffles smiled smugly. "I know," he said. "I lied."

Nutty stomped one of his feet and glared at the ground. "Darnit! Thatgetsme_every_time!" he muttered.

Sniffles smiled. "Feeling calm yet?" he asked.

"No!" shouted Nutty. "Youmademeeatoneofthoseyuckythings! I'mnotcalm! I'mmad! Ihatethose...TrainPills-ImeanTankPills-ImeanTacoPills-Imean-"

"They're called 'Tranquil Pills', Nutty," corrected Sniffles. "And you _shouldn't_ be mad. I was helping you."

"Helpingme?!" yelled Nutty. "Oh,yeah. Helpingmeeattheworld'smostdisgustingestpill! You'resuchajerk! Acold,mean,lying,jerky_jerk!_ IfIhadIdollarforhowmuchofajerkyouare, I'dhave... a lot of dollars!"

Sniffles's eyes widened, and he smiled. "Hey," he said, "I think you're talking at normal speed again!"

Nutty tilted his head. He replied, "Huh? Normal speed? What are you-" He stopped and touched his mouth with one of his paws. Then he removed the paw and looked at Sniffles. "What the... why am I suddenly talking a lot slower?"

"That's just the magic of the Tranquil Pill, my friend," replied Sniffles. "Well, actually, there's nothing magical about them. More like... science."

Nutty slouched his back and, lowered his tail, and put on a relaxed face. "Wow," he said. "I'm feeling _really_ calm right now. Like... I don't have a care in the world." His tail slowly swooshed as he said this.

"That's nice. So... is there a memory you'd like for me to erase?" asked Sniffles, walking inside his house to get his Amnesia Ray.

Nutty followed and answered, "Hmm... oh yeah! What I was trying to tell you, was that in September, I went to a fair. And in that fair, there was a guy going around, rolling a cotton candy cart. I saw the cart, and I got so happy, because I love cotton candy! So I went up to him, and asked for one. But then he looked at me and shook his head. He told me, 'Sorry, but the cotton candy maker's broken. I can't make any cotton candy for you if it won't work.' Then I felt sad. I was so in the mood for some cotton candy, and I didn't get to have any. I get cotton candy every time I go to a fair. Every single time! Except that one! So my day got ruined."

"Okay," replied Sniffles. "I... suppose that is rather sad." He pressed a green square button on the Amnesia Ray. There was a little opening on the back of the Ray. A small, grey microphone popped out of it. Sniffles tapped it to see if it was on. It _sounded_ like it was on, so he spoke into it.

"Hey, Nutty," he said into it. "Remember that time you wanted cotton candy from the cotton candy man in the fair? Last September?"

"Yeah, I just told you about it," answered Nutty.

"Well, that never happened. The cotton candy man never told you that the cotton candy machine was broken. In fact, you don't even remember even seeing him. And you don't remember even _wanting_ cotton candy that time," said Sniffles into the microphone.

"...What? Yes I do! And it was horri-"

Sniffles pulled the trigger on the Amnesia Ray, which was pointed at Nutty. The microphone put itself away. A bright wave of red light blasted at Nutty, and vanished after a second. Nutty's face was blank. His eyes moved around in thought. Then he looked at Sniffles.

The anteater asked him, "...So, Nutty, can you recall going to the fair last September, and finding a cotton candy guy pushing a cotton candy cart, and asking him for some cotton candy, but he told he told you that he couldn't give you any because the cotton candy machine was broken, and... then your day got ruined?"

Nutty put on a puzzled face. "What?" he asked.

Sniffles sighed. "Do you remember going to the fair in September?"

The squirrel scratched his head and answered, "Yeah..."

"'Kay, do you recall walking around in it?"

"Yes..."

"And seeing a cotton candy man with a cotton candy cart?

Nutty looked up. "Ehh..." he squinted. "...No... I... don't think so... _did_ I see one?"

"I don't know," replied Sniffles. "I wasn't with you. Do you remember ordering cotton candy from the man? And he told you that the machine was broken, so you didn't get any?"

Nutty thought hard. "No... no. I don't remember... at all..."

Sniffles gasped. He smiled triumphantly. "It... works!" he said. "The Amnesia Ray can erase any memory I pick!"

"It can?" asked Nutty. "How do you know that?"

"Because I used it on you! It's as if you never met the cotton candy man!"

"Ohh... what cotton candy man?"

"Heh heh heh. Exactly," chuckled Sniffles.


End file.
